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

Whole And Complete

Cowboy Cottage, East Napa, California, USA

October 17, 2014


This essay, Whole And Complete, is the third in the eighth trilogy Questions For A Friend:
  1. Once In A Lifetime
  2. Fireside Chat
  3. Whole And Complete
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 third trilogy Questions For A Friend is:
  1. Dancing With My Mouth
  2. Cave Paintings
  3. Velvet Tsunami
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 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.
This essay, Whole And Complete, is also the sixth in an octology on Completion: It is also the prequel to New Experience.


Thank You for this. Really. Thank You.

What I mean explicitly by "Thank You for this" is "Thank You for reading this". You reading this makes writing it a privilege, twice.

The first privilege is being in a conversation with Werner. The second privilege is what you make available by reading it: in doing so, you open the space for me to share this conversation with the world. And the first privilege is merely potential energy (ie it doesn't gain traction) until it's shared with the world.

I don't know why it's this way. It just is this way.

The Third Question



"You speak about the 'theoretical now' as distinct from the 'episodic now'. The exact moment in time I call now is really an instant - so brief it's not real for me. Is this the theoretical now? What's real for me is a longer period in time I call now, an episode with a beginning and a middle and an end. Is this the episodic now? Am I in the ballpark?"

Since you first introduced me to transformation nearly forty years ago, it's permeated through every aspect of my life. It's also permeated through other aspects of Life itself which seem to be more generic than personal: time, for example. The experience coming from transformation that it's always now, gives me cause to reconsider all my notions of what time is and what it isn't. For example, how long  is now? Am I in the ballpark with my articulations of the 'theoretical now' as distinct from the 'episodic now'?


<quote>

YES, WHAT YOU SAY USES TERMS I HAVE NOT USED, BUT WHAT YOU SAY IS VALID.

<unquote>


Thank you for correcting me.

Your answer also validates what I do. For me, there's the ever present danger that these essays reflect too much of Laurence and not enough of you. Of course there's going to be some overlap - there's got  to be: I actually don't know how to share you unless I share myself. But the overall driving intention, the raison d'etre  of these Conversations For Transformation, is to share you. In this regard, I take your "valid" as a validation - literally.

The Fifth Question



"When I listen you speak integrity, you speak about revoking a promise with integrity. This runs against what I learned growing up. I learned integrity was keeping my promises. Integrity wasn't included in revoking ie in 'breaking' promises. How can you break a promise with integrity?"

This is very basic. It goes back a long way. A good boy  or girl keeps their promises. The truth is I've never been sure of how to relate to this ingrained expectation when, for whatever the reason, I'm prevented  from keeping a promise I make. For example, I promise to visit you at a certain time on a certain day, but a storm has washed the bridge out, and I can't get to you. So I don't keep my promise. Hasn't this voided my integrity? How is it possible to break a promise with integrity?


<quote>

BY HONORING  YOUR PROMISE, AS WE HAVE DEFINED AND DISTINGUISHED "HONOR" IN THE INTEGRITY DOCUMENTS.

<unquote>


This is brilliant. It's a wide open answer, one which is particularly powerful for people who are already familiar with how you've defined and distinguished "honor" as in "honoring your promise" ie as in "honoring your word", and especially for those who aren't.

As for the integrity documents you mention, I've gained enormous value reading them. Each time I (re-)read them, I gain new insights into what it is to honor my word as distinct from keeping my word. The thing is keeping my word, while arguably the learned and noble and right  and good thing to do, leaves no room for breaking my word and  maintaining integrity, whenever that may become inevitable, like when a storm has washed the bridge out - whereas honoring my word does.

<aside>

Werner's integrity documents in which he's defined and distinguished "honor", are accessed by clicking here.

<un-aside>

The Tenth Question



"Being in integrity is obviously an act of workability because without integrity nothing works. And being in integrity, because it works, enhances the quality of our relationships. So would you consider being in integrity, in addition to being an act of workability, therefore also to be an act of love?"

Well, is it? Is being in integrity also an act of love?


<quote>

IT COULD BE, BUT I WANT TO DIRECT PEOPLE TO THE FACT THAT, GIVEN THAT WHO THEY ARE REALLY IS THEIR WORD, BEING A MAN OR WOMAN OF INTEGRITY LEAVES ONE BEING WHOLE AND COMPLETE.

<unquote>


This is stunning. It brings forth something I wasn't including (and I didn't realize I wasn't including it), something so fundamental which has always been here, yet perhaps in the ordinary course of things, we don't often talk about it this way. More than that, it's a clearer way of looking at integrity in relationships, than my way.

Your answer also gives the title to this essay: Whole And Complete.


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