"There's no there there."
... Gertrude Stein referring to her razed childhood home in
Oakland California (widely assumed erroneously to refer to Oakland
itself)
"There's no there here."
... Russell Baker
"There's no then now."
... George Swan
This essay,
Gamechanger,
is the companion piece to
Gamechanger II.
In the closed group in which that
conversation
took place, descriptions and inquiries like these have validity. But
outside of that group of people with their particular
listening,
do these descriptions and inquiries serve sharingtransformation
ie do they facilitate making
transformation
available especially when introducing it for the first time? It could
be said they don't because they preach to the choir. Outside of
the closed group with its particular
listening,
they may simply overburden
transformation
by laying it vulnerable to misinterpreted significance, rendering it
un-listenable.
Werner
Erhard
first presented
transformation
to a stunned
world
forty three years ago. Since then, much has become possible for sharing
transformation
which simply wasn't possible before in developing, expanding, and
delivering
Werner's work.
That's got a lot more to do with the expansion of peoples' acceptance
and receptive
listening
for
transformation
in
the world
than it has to do with other contributing factors which include the
development of more adept methods and vehicles for delivering
transformation
powerfully and reliably.
I personally suspect that while its delivery methods have developed and
advanced exponentially, and while since its inception
transformation
has been delivered from an ever expanding variety of platforms
(trainings,
symposia, satellite TV connections,
forums,
seminars,
courses, cruises (yes
cruises), even local and global conferences, a comprehensive
library of scholarly
papers
etc ... the list goes on and on), the
heart
of the
work of transformation
has remained constant. And if that's true, I've wondered what this
constant factor actually is. Indeed, is there one factor
common
to all the iterative expressions of
Werner's work
we've seen in the last forty three years, or is it all simply an
ongoing changing flux (the very
source
of which is also an ongoing changing flux) with no one particular
factor
common
to them all ie with no one particular factor at the
heart
of it all?
On
reflection
it seems to me there may be. It seems, as I look at this
closely,
the pivotal issue ie the gamechanger which inspires living
life
transformed
and differentiates it from living life untransformed (in other
words
the distinction which is at
the heart of the matter
of what it is to be
transformed
or not, and which makes each and every further iteration of the
work of transformation
possible, viable, and open-ended) may be the realization
there's nothing to
get.
"Oh,
I get it"
you say, "what there is to get is there's
nothing
to get.". No, that's not it. When you say "What there
is to get is there's
nothing
to get", you're making "there's
nothing
to get" into something to get. You're making "there's
nothing
to get" into what there is to get. No, there's
nothing
to get. Really.
Nothing.
What makes "there's
nothing
to get" the one factor
common
to all the iterations of
Werner's work
ie the one factor at the
heart
of all the iterations of
Werner's work
ie the gamechanger of
Werner's work
is it's the powerful platform on which there's an enormous freedom to
create.
There's
nothing
to get (what an enormous freedom that is!) so
create!
Purely because of this platform, it's possible to
create
bigger and bigger and bigger possibilities. Purely because there's
nothing
to get, there's an invitation, an opportunity, a calling
to
create
bigger and bigger and bigger possibilities.
Trainings,
symposia, satellite TV connections,
forums,
seminars,
courses, cruises, local and global conferences, a comprehensive
library of scholarly
papers
etc are simply examples of what's possible - or (if you prefer) simply
evidence of what's possible.
Actually the real difference is felt even sooner than that. The real
difference is felt in individual lives - in your life, in my life -
once it's realized there's
nothing
to get in the struggle to find meaning and significance. Life is
empty and meaningless.
And it's
empty and meaninglessthat it's
empty and
meaningless.
Making it mean something that it's
empty and meaninglessis just more arrogance. There's
nothing
to get. But rather than that
devolving
into a kind of existential dead-end street, it becomes an
enormous freedom to
create
when the
futile
struggle for meaning and significance is given up entirely.
The fully expressed gamechanger is "There's
nothing
to get, so (should you choose to do so) you're
free
to
createanything". It's the gamechanger after which
nothing
is ever experienced in quite the same way again - or (if you prefer)
it's the gamechanger after which the experience of
everything shifts. It's the gamechanger at the
heart
of your life. It's the gamechanger at the
heart
of my life. It's the gamechanger at the
heart
of each of the many developing, expanding iterations of
Werner's work.
It's the gamechanger at the
heart
of what it is to live life
transformed
or not.