Conversations For Transformation: Essays Inspired By The Ideas Of Werner Erhard

Conversations For Transformation

Essays By Laurence Platt

Inspired By The Ideas Of Werner Erhard

And More
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The Gifts

Cowboy Cottage, East Napa, California, USA

August 7, 2024


"You are responsible for getting more value out of assisting than you put in."
... 
"Don't assist to get better. In assisting, move from being served to serving."
... 
"When you come in to assist, I experience it as a very personal gift."
... 
This essay, The Gifts, is the companion piece to I am indebted to Anna Taglieri who inspired this conversation, and to Anna Taglieri and to Virginia LeRoux and to Mehul Mehta and to Harsh Mehta who contributed material.


Transformation, it's said, is a gift you give to yourSelf. I like that. I like it a lot. There's another version of it that I like even more, which is: transformation is a gift Life itself gives to you. On the other hand assisting, it's often said, is a gift you give to other people. I like that one a lot too. And there's another version of it I like even more, which is: assisting is (also) a gift you give to yourSelf. What greater gift is there to give ourselves than the access to who we really are (and / or to get the access to who we really are from Life itself) and / or to support other people discovering the access to who they really are?

Whenever I assist, I remind myself of (recreate, re-enliven) a promise I made to Werner to get (ie to be responsible for getting) more value out of assisting than I put in. Look: it just doesn't work any other way. You can't possibly get the experience ie the gift of assisting (which is service  by the way) if you're doing it in order to get something from it. Assisting isn't a paid job (nor should it be). It's an opportunity to experience the gift of making a contribution ie of making a difference in other people's lives. But that doesn't mean that gifts in the more traditional sense aren't plentiful and forthcoming around Werner.

Lithograph by Virginia LeRoux



Photography by Rajendra Malik Photo Pro Lab, Napa, California, USA 3:30:06pm PDT Friday August 2, 2024
Gift from Werner for the People Who Assist - Lithograph (1'8" x 2'2", #264 / 300) by Virginia LeRoux - Friday July 29, 1988


In addition to the often abstract, intangible gifts of transformation, Werner has long been known for the thoughtful, generous gifts he gives to people with whom he works, as a statement of his appreciation. It took an entire team of dedicated people to produce the lithograph (above) by Virginia LeRoux, as his gift for the People Who Assist in July of 1988. The lithograph's painting has a certain je ne sais quoi  (that's French for "I do not know what") quality to it. Be open to it and allow its bold statement in. It's enough to evoke a sense of rich, unabashed, open-hearted full-throated Self-expression (it's no accident).

Each print was first protected with an oil-free parchment paper cover sheet which was sized and cut perfectly to fit, then secured unfolded in a large, flat, stiffened box to prevent damage, which was then encased in a larger, sturdy padded box and mailed, a process which was repeated three hundred times. Werner's gifts, like this one, are often works of art (he's not the kind to give gift cards from an electronics store or vouchers from a coffee shop). Indeed, the work of transformation itself is nothing more (and nothing less) than a work of art whose acrylics are our words and whose canvas is the whole world.

Etching in brass plate by Mehul Mehta



Calligraphy on plain paper by Werner Erhard The Leadership Course Being A Leader and the Effective Exercise of Leadership An Ontological / Phenomenological Model Asia Plateau, Panchgani, Mahārāshtra, India 7:00am Friday November 26, 2010 Etching in brass plate by Mehul Mehta Nadiad, Gujarat, India 2:00pm Sunday January 2, 2011 Photography by Laurence Platt Cowboy Cottage, East Napa, California, USA 11:12am Wednesday January 19, 2011
Gift from Werner for Laurence - Rainer Maria Rilke quote calligraphed by Werner, etched in brass plate (1'6" x 1'0") by Mehul Mehta - Sunday January 2, 2011


To produce this gift, Werner first calligraphed the Rainer Maria Rilke quote (it's a classic) and personalized note on plain paper, from where it was etched in a 1'6" x 1'0" brass plate. It's weighty. Unlike a lithograph, if you dropped it on your foot, you'd feel it. It's transformation with heft. The combined impact of the concept of this gift, Werner's personalized calligraphy, the message conveyed by the quote and what (and whom) it speaks to, and the combination of logistics required to produce this truly original gift make for an attention-grabber. Even if it weren't signed, this gift would be very Werner, vintage Erhard.

The gift was conceived and produced in India where Werner was speaking The Leadership Course: Being a Leader and the Effective Exercise of Leadership: An Ontological / Phenomenological Model at the time. One of the course participants had generously offered to carry it home with him in his cabin bag on his return flight from India to California where I, none the wiser, arranged to meet him, having been told only that "I have something for you from India.". I framed it and hung it in my home in an appropriate location. Its weight would have ripped its hook out of drywall, so I located a stud and set the hook in it.

The way you get to keep love is by giving it away



The gifts of transformation and assisting. The access to who we really are. Lithographs. A brass plate. What do they all have in common? What all of them have in common is that by themselves, held in isolation, they have some interest, some value, some noteworthy quality; but when they're shared ie when they're given away, when they're no longer held onto and instead made public and available, their value, their worth magnifies rapidly, exponentially. There is no rational explanation for this. And yet you know it to be true: the way you get to keep love is by sharing it, by giving it away. Love's like that. It just is.


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