I am indebted to Bob Fisher who inspired this conversation.
Immersing myself in any
conversation
(a
conversation for
transformation
to be sure, but immersing myself in anyconversation
actually) is like immersing myself in the
water
in a
swimming pool.
The
water
in a
swimming pool
has characteristics and properties (temperature, clarity,
pH balance, depth etc). A
conversation
also has characteristics and properties
(openings,
insights, knowledge, experience etc). For the most part, immersing
myself in the
water
in a
swimming pool
ensures I'm subject to its characteristics and properties. Like that,
immersing myself in any
conversation
ensures I'm subject to its characteristics and properties as well.
When I'm in each and any of the above
conversations,
there are
openings
I gain access to, there are insights I have, there's new knowing to be
gotten. Overall, there's the whole unique and distinct
experience I'm left with as a result of immersing myself
in each particular
conversation.
Continuing with the
water
in a
swimming pool
analogy, the result of immersing myself in any particular
conversation,
equates to experiencing the
wetness
of the
water
of that particular
conversation
(each
conversation
imparts and leaves me with its own particular experience of
wetness).
When I'm in a
seminar
I'm surrounded by real people being real. I
listen
people
speaking
what's possible rather than justifying staying stuck. I
listen
people
speaking
responsibility rather than blame and excuse. I
listen
people
speakingvictory over the
past,
having discovered the access to relinquishing their own
victim-ness (if you will). There are no blowhards
in here. Instead this is a level of
authenticity
which has to be heard to be fully appreciated. When I'm in a
seminar
I'm surrounded by people who are more
interested
in breaking new ground in their lives, than stubbornly holding on to
existing circumstances, situations, and
barriers
ie in being right about them. I hear expressions of
courage and bravery as people
speak
openly and fearlessly about their real life situations without the
slightest attempt to look good (obsessing with looking good, by the
way, a rampant practice, perniciously gets in the way of being
authentic).
Being in a
seminar
is an opportunity to grapple with
personal
issues, age old inquiries into what it is exactly to be
human,
issues concerning the well-being of each of us individually and of all
of us collectively. And arguably most notably, these issues are never
addressed from the position of an unquestioned steward's hectoring
doctrine but rather from your ongoing
discovery in real time made newly and
originally.
There's a certain admiration I have for people who are willing to
participate
in this
conversation,
for people who ongoingly invent and reinvent their lives as they're
living them, rather than sticking closely to the tired old script of an
entrenched
belief system.
Contrasted with being in, say, the
morning newsconversation,
this is truly inspiring. You could say
Life itself
is
working
itself out in these
conversations.
That's what it is to be
used by
this
conversation:
it's to be used by
Life itselfworking
itself out. It's a
conversation
worthy of being in. It's unique. There's none other quite like it.
Anywhere. And when you're in it, you won't need anyone to tell you it's
unique. Just by being in it, you know. You ... just ... know.
It has that kind of recognizable timbre to it.