When I write and publish a new essay, my estimate of how it'll fare
enlivening the space in which
transformation
can
show up
varies from "Damn! This is great!" to being seriously,
majorly concerned it'll be a total, embarrassing fiasco.
Ironically, even though one measure of success for these
Conversations For
Transformation
is whether they enliven the space in which
transformation
can
show up
or not, I don't do this in order to succeed. By the same token, neither
am I stopped by thoughts of a total, embarrassing fiasco. This is what
I do, so I do it - regardless of what the
voice in my head
says about it. Perhaps, just perhaps, this is where
Conversations For
Transformation's
strength is.
Then there's feedback. Feedback, for me, is a major aspect in, a major
component of any and all of these
Conversations For
Transformation.
While I've certainly got my own opinion of what's going to
work
with them and what's not going to
work
with them, the truth for me is there's no evidence any of
it actually doesworkuntil someone says it
works.
Oftentimes it's those essays I'm concerned are really
going to be fiascos which, it turns out, receive the most appreciative
feedback. I've considered what accounts for this, this
mismatch between my estimates and actuality.
It's like I'm the guy deep down in the coal mine, chiseling, drilling,
and hammering away at the coal face. I'm sweaty, black (sooty), and
dirty, and it all looks very
messy
from my side, even though I started out with the idea of going down
into the mine to retrieve value. It's only out there when
people who warm themselves by the resulting coal fire (so to speak) say
"Wow! Thanks for this! This
works!"
when I realize I can give up my concerns about a fiasco. I guess being
sweaty, sooty, and dirty, with all thoughts of any ultimate value being
temporarily obscured, goeswith the territory (as
Alan Watts
may have said) of mining value deep down in the coal mine up against
the coal face.
On another level, given the foundation, the platform I
stand on is an inspiring partnership among many, many people in many,
many countries who are making
transformation
available on
the planet,
it's probably also true if I just stand here in integrity, this can't
fail - no matter how many faults and flaws
Conversations For
Transformation
may have, no matter how many faults and flaws I may have.
You know what they say in the classics: just stand up, open your mouth,
and read the dictionary or the telephone directory out loud. It's not
the content anyway. It's never the content.
While I'm committed to staying open to correction and suggestion, and I
do make suggested corrections often and whenever appropriate (that's
the beauty of the internet, by the way, as a medium of expression: it's
flexible and can be changed and updated often, unlike a book, for
example, which once printed, is static, at least until the next
printing), I can't always correct what people point out without
completely trashing the essay in question and starting over again, so I
may chose to leave it
exactly the way it is,
faults and flaws and all.
Neither can I always duplicate one unique expression which
works
in one particular
Conversations For
Transformation
essay in another essay. They don't always flow or come that way. That's
why I call them
"Conversations For
Transformation"
and not "principles for
transformation"
or "rules for
transformation"
or "treatises for
transformation".
They're much more spontaneous, they're much more fun, much more fluid
and malleable, much more rough and down and dirty
than that.