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

Velvet Tsunami

Monticello Vineyards, Napa Valley, California, USA

March 26, 2010


"When I don't know who I am, I serve you. When I know who I am, I am you." ... Hanuman speaking with Rama in the Sanskrit epic Ramayana

"When I don't know who I am, I serve you. When I know who I am, I am you. When I am who I am, I love you." ... Laurence Platt speaking with a Friend
This essay, Velvet Tsunami, is the third in the third trilogy Questions For A Friend:
  1. Dancing With My Mouth
  2. Cave Paintings
  3. Velvet Tsunami
in that order. 		The first trilogy Questions For A Friend is:
  1. Prelude
  2. Ask Me Anything
  3. Coming Around Again
in that order.
The second trilogy Questions For A Friend is:
  1. Familiar Unfamiliar Territory
  2. Interview
  3. Straight Talk
in that order. 		The fourth trilogy Questions For A Friend is:
  1. Creating Creating
  2. Tell Me Something About Nothing
  3. Lucid Disclosures
in that order.
The fifth trilogy Questions For A Friend is:
  1. Closer And Closer
  2. Tête À Tête
  3. Dancing With Life
in that order. 		The sixth trilogy Questions For A Friend is:
  1. What Would I Ask You If I Could Ask You Anything?
  2. Wonderings About Nothing In Particular
  3. Tipping Point
in that order.
The seventh trilogy Questions For A Friend is:
  1. Beyond Breathing Underwater
  2. Bold Faced Truth
  3. What You Create For Yourself About Me
in that order. 		The eighth trilogy Questions For A Friend is:
  1. Once In A Lifetime
  2. Fireside Chat
  3. Whole And Complete
in that order.
The ninth trilogy Questions For A Friend is:
  1. Questions For A Friend
  2. Nothing Else I'd Rather Be Doing
  3. Free To Be And Free To Act
in that order. 		The tenth trilogy Questions For A Friend is:
  1. Attracted To Dance
  2. I Told A Friend I Love You
  3. Terse Transformed Communication
in that order.
The eleventh trilogy Questions For A Friend is:
  1. A Context Worth Playing In
  2. Tie The Brush To My Hand
  3. Unimaginably Terse
in that order. 		The twelfth trilogy Questions For A Friend is:
  1. What Will I Do When You Die?
  2. Access
  3. The Newest Piece Of Work
in that order.
The thirteenth trilogy Questions For A Friend is:
  1. Worthy Of The Company
  2. Creating Them For Myself
  3. Standing With Masters
in that order. 		The fourteenth trilogy Questions For A Friend is:
  1. This Context Of Privilege
  2. I'm Not Going To Let It Go
  3. Questions For A Friend XIV III: Not Yet Titled (working title)
in that order.



Werner Erhard
www.wernererhard.net
In the exchange following, the three subtitles "The First Question", "The Second Question", and "The Sixth Question" in that order are accurate. They correlate with questions I originally asked you in Cave Paintings. Cave Paintings is the prequel to Velvet Tsunami and is also the second essay in this third Questions For A Friend trilogy, of which Velvet Tsunami is the third.

I'm really touched by your way  of responding. In fact I'm moved to tears actually. Your responses are as vibrant, as laser clear, and as transformational as they always are.

Yet your responses (recreated in this conversation with 100% accuracy) while extraordinary, are simply conduits for who you're being behind your responses  manifesting in the world ie showing up in people's lives. This is where the priceless gift of your speaking and listening becomes present for people as the possibility of generating transformation for themselves. This is where the real  impact and the enduring legacy of this interaction with you comes alive.

In so few words there's so much gentle power here. It's like a velvet tsunami, like a happy hurricane. My experience of this exchange is as if I've been deeply touched, moved, and inspired by a springcleaning tornado.

The First Question



"Who are you like a possibility, like a commitment?"

People who know you, including those who've only heard about you vicariously, have opinions about who are you. Yet from the trivial (your name and your hejira  ie your story) to the pragmatic (your work) to the profound (transformation and possibility), who people see and hear you being ie who people say you are for them  is as varying as the points of view of the people who know you.

Please say how you see yourself. Who are you  for yourself like a possibility, like a commitment? To what are you committed?


<quote>

I AM COMMITTED TO BEING A SPACE WHERE THE TRUTH CAN GO TO WORK.

<unquote>


Perfect.

So perfect in fact that I'll not add any commentary - it will only get in the way.

The Second Question



"More people trust you being more intimate with them than anyone else in history. Why do so many people open to you so deeply, so fully, so freely?".

What I observe watching you and listening you interacting with people is there's something about you  which people naturally trust. People waste no time speaking deeply, fully, freely, intimately, and openly with you about any and all things which really matter  to them in their lives. You're wonderful  with people.

I've watched this going on around you for over thirty years. I've watched it going on around you all over the world. I've watched it going on in different countries. I've watched it going on in different cultures. I've even watched it going on when people interacting with you are blind  and / or don't speak English  requiring an interpreter to translate. It makes no difference: they get it anyway. It's a universal phenomenon.

What accounts for this? What is it  about you and people?


<quote>

BEST TO ASK THEM. BUT, MY SENSE OF WHAT IS SO ABOUT THIS IS THAT THEY SOMEHOW SENSE OR KNOW THAT FOR ME THEY ARE OK THE WAY THEY ARE AND THAT I AM PASSIONATELY COMMITTED TO THE POSSIBILITY THAT THEY ARE.

<unquote>


Brilliant. Clear. It shows.

The Sixth Question



"Is missing being around you a disservice to you?".

Your constant world traveling seminar delivery schedule would fell an ox. It serves as many people on the planet as possible being around you listening you speaking transformation, then speaking transformation with you so the transformed listening you are  is also recreated. It also ensures more time than I care to admit goes by before I get to be with you again.

It's a paradox. I support you constantly traveling. I simply don't like one result of it - which is I miss you. It's stoopid  I know. But it's true.

And I question whether me missing you flies in the face of (perhaps even negates)  the core experience of transformation, which is wholeness.


<quote>

NO, NOT THE WAY YOU DO IT.

<unquote>


Thank You!

For the record, the way I do it is given a choice of very few options, I've figured out since I can't be around you as often as I like, I recreate you here where I am as my experience of you  by ... my ... Self.

I assert it's an access for anyone and everyone: choosing to recreate you this way has you always being here, being with us wherever we are.


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