During this year,
this website
was
optimized for mobile
(it's an ongoing process). In the coming year, I'll narrow the gap
toward posting the
one thousand
five hundredth essay (currently there are
one thousand
three hundred and eighty
complete
essays posted online). At the same
time,
I'll also narrow the gap toward
the website
receiving its one and a
half millionth view
(currently it's received one
million
three hundred and thirty
one thousand,
eight hundred and eighty views). Both these milestones will be
passed in a bit more than one year from
now
ie in October 2019. Currently each
new
essay attracts about
one thousand
views, a total of about ten
thousand
website views a month. Also currently,
tweets
earn about ten
thousand
impressions every month. An estimated
one thousand
five hundred
people
worldwide
receive
Conversations For
Transformation
announcements by
e-mail
(mostly distributed on Sundays and Wednesdays at midnight PDT).
Bluesky
and
e-mail
are the only
social media
platforms
deployed for
Conversations For
Transformation
announcements.
For as long as I've done this, there's a
question
that's never been far away, and it's often
asked.
That
question
is
"Why
do you do this?" (I'd be surprised if it wasn't
asked:
it's to be
expected
around any
expressions
of
the work of
transformation).
And the only
truthful
and / or
worthwhile
answer
lands either like a cross-court slam-dunk for some, or it
infuriates those who aren't ready for a
Zen
answer.
The
answer
is "I do this because this is what I do", to which an oft
elicited response is "So you do this because it makes a
contribution.".
No, I do this because this is what I do (if it makes a
contribution,
OK
great). Another oft elicited response is "So you do this because it
enrolls
people.".
No, I do this because this is what I do (if it
enrolls
people,
OK
great). You've
got
to
discover
for yourself
how
to
get
all the
significance
out of it, if you're going to
transform
anything in life. In fact it's likely we can regard all of
humanity's
malaises,
from the mundane to the urgent global, as a function of
how
much
significance
we place on our
actions,
as
distinct
from us
simply
taking
action.
Speaking
as a
friend
(not in any official capacity) I assert that there are
two
essential
thrusts to
the work of
transformation
(yes I'm
saying
any component of
the work of
transformation,
fits into one of these two categories). The first is arguably the
most important, yet it's the one on which you spend relatively
little
time.
The second is merely the outcome of the first ie it's its
corollary if you will, yet it's the one on which
you'll spend the rest of your life. So: what are they? The first is
experiencing
that
out-of-time
contextual shift,
after which
significance
is
known,
arguably for the first
time,
for what it is: arbitrarily (if not contagiously)
generated by us - so we can just as
easily
set it aside (it's not an
essential).
The second is
living into a future
of your own
choosing
and
creation,
having assigned all
significance
to the slag heap of
history.
The first thrust then, is the event
"transformation".
And the second one (all the rest) ie everything that follows, is
living life
transformed.
Giving them together ie making both available, is
the work of
transformation.
Nothing
more.
Nothing
less.
Now,
with all that laid bare as a
platform
on which to
celebrate,
I'm really thrilled you're here (and if you're
listening
this, you're here). I'd like to
think
that what's available here, has been available since the dawn of
time.
Yet that may be naïve
thinking:
the essence of
transformation
(disregarding any skepticism which goeswith
considering
this) may have only made its first,
authentic,
getable,
shareable
appearance on
our planet,
in March of 1971.
Transformation
is a
people
possibility,
yes? And we've been around a lot longer than March
1971, yes? So the
idea
that
transformation
as an essence, first became available in March of 1971,
sounds naïve at worst, preposterous at best.
So what?!
It's here
now
like a
possibility,
the
possibility
that life by itself, in itself, and of itself is enough.
That's a
gamechanger.
No, not a
gamechanger:
the
gamechanger
(I didn't have to
say
that: you already
knew
it). I'm a
stand
for
contributing
this: when, in
moments
of
human
self-doubt,
you
question
"Is this really all there is? Can it really be so
simple?".
"Yes. Yes it can. Yes it is.".
Werner
Erhard's
presence
throughout these essays is not only obvious: it's legendary (in the
true
sense of the
word
"legendary"). I'd like to
speak
to this so it's up
front,
clearly
out in the
open,
and
completely
overt. There are three
distinctions
to
note
here:
"who I am
as a
writer"
is the first
distinction,
"who I am
as a
friend
of
Werner Erhard"
(I'm one of many, many
thousands
-
trust
me) is the second, and
"who I am
as a
friend
of
Werner Erhard,
as a
writer"
is the third.
These essays
are a product of ie they're
sourced by
that third
distinction,
inspired
by the second, and in this
context,
the first is actually almost totally irrelevant. I'd like you to
consider
the
possibility
that
transformation
shows up
in your life, in the space of
your relationship with
Werner
as its essence, whatever you
consider
that
relationship
may be.
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