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


GoFundMe

There's Always The Next Piece

Napa Valley, California, USA

June 15, 2019



"No. You could describe the upcoming 'The Mastery Course' as 'the newest piece of work'."
 ... 
answering Laurence Platt's question "Am I accurate in describing the upcoming Mastery Course ("Being a Master of Life: What It Takes" - New York, April 2018) as the next iteration of your work after (ie as the sequel to) the Leadership Course? If not, how should I introduce it?" in Questions For A Friend XII
This essay, There's Always The Next Piece, is the tenth in the open second group of Experiences Of A Friend (click here for the complete first group of thirty five Experiences Of A Friend):
  1. Friend, Partner, And Ally
  2. Go To The Beach
  3. Proof Of Life
  4. Going Out Like A Supernova
  5. Relationships: They Start, They End
  6. Evidence Of Source
  7. On Knowing When To Be Ordinary
  8. Letting Be
  9. Transforming The Untransformable
  10. There's Always The Next Piece
  11. Plastic Chandelier II
  12. Yes You Really Are That Big
  13. A Way With Words
  14. The Quietest Mind
  15. Approaching Integrity
  16. Dancing With Life II
  17. Staying In Integrity
  18. Ordinary People Star, Extraordinary People Recreate Themselves
  19. Committed Existence
  20. When You're Being Like Werner, You're Not Being Like Werner
  21. "There's Life Happening Where You Are"
  22. At The Level Of Self-Expression
  23. Intergalactic Dude
  24. Wonderful With People
  25. The Piercing Essay
in that order.




It's been there in the background for as long as I've been around Werner's work. The thing in the background is a persistent thought I always promised myself I'd pay more attention to someday  ... and yet never did. The thought was that no matter what I do with what I get from participating in this work, no matter how intently and how purposefully I complete each venture into it (that's each ad-venture actually), there's always the next piece  to complete ie there's no let-up, there's never any down-time. When I finally started paying attention to "there's always the next piece", I realized I'd been looking at the work of transformation from the perspective of trying to finish it. I'd been trying to get it all done - like you "get your job done" and then it's finished, you know? Just like that. It was the only context I had for it.

So I continued looking at the skew toward "trying to get it all done" ie trying to finish the job, until one day I discovered this: if this work was about finishing the job ie if it was about setting people up with a goal to realize, with a place to get to, with something to attain, with things to accomplish, with an end in mind, then it wouldn't be the work of transformation. Really. It couldn't be. To be sure, as a result  of engaging in this work, people meet goals that everyone knows  can only be reached in dreams. They get to places in life they never ever imagined they could get to. They attain heights they once thought were unscalable. They accomplish things which they once deemed impossible to accomplish. But here's the thing (listen carefully): those are its results. They're not its ongoingly implemented design. If you look at its ongoingly implemented design, it's open-ended. There are gaping holes. There's always another breakthrough to target. There's always the next piece.

And watch: if you look carefully, you'll see the new pieces aren't merely recycled old pieces. Transformation as a shared platform  is constantly expanding and opening up, especially as more and more people discover the access to it. What's visible now to a group of people, will soon become the baseline for what's visible at a greater depth to an even larger group of people. And for the work of transformation to have integrity and to be authentic, it has to keep materializing its newer pieces as they come into focus - as they do ongoingly. There's no resting on laurels. And if there is (as tempting as it may be), it's not a component of the work of transformation.

If you asked a hundred or a thousand or a million people to share their experiences of Werner, you may get a hundred or a thousand or a million unique responses. But there'd be a subtext which would run through all of them, especially from those who know who he is and who've taken the time ie who've made it their business to be around him. This subtext is he's always  in action. There's always the next piece. There's no let-up. There's never any down-time. Now you could say "That's Werner!" and / or you could say "That's transformation!", and both would be fine. But the truth is probably closer to "That's Werner bringing forth transformation". He's always in action. There's always the next piece. There's always Werner always bringing forth the next piece. Look: you want the definition of "power"?  That's it.

In this sense, the work of transformation is like a finely-tuned train running on a track. You can board the train at any time. You can stay on board as long as you like, and you can disembark whenever you choose. The train however, keeps on running, so there's an opportunity to reboard it again any time you want to. Said another way with another analogy, Werner's work is in effect like our living room in which you're welcome to visit, to stay as long as you like, and to leave whenever you like, taking with you whatever you find valuable. We'll be here whenever you choose to visit again. And when you do, you may rediscover some familiar pieces which you recognize from the last time you were here. But in all likelihood, what you'll find is the next piece, and then the next piece, and then the newest piece, and then the one after that. Look: if that's not what you find, then you should vacate the premises immediately, given you'd have obviously gone to the wrong address by mistake.



Communication Promise E-Mail | Home

© Laurence Platt - 2019 through 2024 Permission