Tag: Miscellany

For the last two weeks or so, I’ve been working as kitchen yogi, aka cook’s assistant here at the Centre. This means I spend most of a 9-3 shift pulsing between chopping veggies for 30 or 40 hot lunches and washing piles of big pots, pans and spoons.

After all the cooking, I return to my cell for a like number of hours of working online, pulsing between local body and cyberspace, between GMT and other timezones, between MHA (for profit) and sCNN (for passion), and between current conversations and future conferences. Evenings and weekends I pulse between my two homes, here and Jill’s place.

I realized this morning that I’m involved in conversations in London, Chicago, Kathmandu, South Africa, Vancouver, Open Space (wherever that is) and a few other places that I can’t quite pin down on the map. It’s getting to be quite the heart stretch, all this pulsation, and a very interesting world. God knows I’m glad to be in the kitchen to keep it all ever so slightly tethered to ground.

My old buddy Daniel O’Connor has, at long last, leapt into the blogosphere. He’s been working on an integral economics book for a couple of years. Looks like he’s going to start spilling his secrets at Catallaxis. Take your thinking cap when you visit. He’s not messing around:

Catallaxis is a blog about the market

Good to hear Euan blogging in his own words yesterday, concluding…

We can no longer rely on the certainties that appeared to underpin our world. Experts who knew all the answers, structures that remained unchanged for decades, society that neatly lined up the way it was meant to and individuals who knew their place and assumed the roles expected of them.

In the fragmentation of sense-making, as the comfort of mass media and culture dissolves into so many individual bloggy, often foggy, and other voices, it occurs to me that the clarity we each achieve is directly related to the quality of attention and energy that we each bring to the task, for ourselves. And any sense we make is a gift to everyone around us. Uniquely universal. Hmmm….

Having spent a fair amount of time in the last few years in Canada and some other places that still put the Queen on their money, I’ve come to delight in the circle that goes like this: Why is the Queen on your money? Because she’s the Queen. Well why do you let her run your country? We don’t. Well why is she on your money? Because she’s the Queen. Does she have any power at all? No. Then why not take her off the money? Because she’s the Queen. Is the money hers? No. Well… you get the picture. The only good excuse I’ve ever heard for leaving her on is that “our young people can go study and work in the UK without any special visa requirements.”

Now this week comes the news that Charles is going to wed again. His announcement was reported on the first seven full pages of the one major newspaper that I saw that day. What would they have done for news if the announcement had come one day earlier or later? And what does all this have to do with Canada? Well this…

It seems there was some question about Canadian approval of the wedding or titles to be given as a result. According to the Toronto Star, the Constitution Act of 1867 makes the monarch Canada’s head of state, head of the executive branch of government and commander-in-chief of the military. Wow. No wonder she’s still on the money.

just finished up my housekeeping rotation at the Centre and it seems a little housekeeping is in order here, in the way of some observations about my best days…

• i started out hoovering and cleaning from the mind of one who expected to do this one thing, the hoovering, the wiping, the stacking, the moving as if i would do it forever. this seemed to make more space for me to work.
• i noticed that everything i did was quickly undone and i came to expect that, without minimizing the contribution and importance of doing it.
• i noticed that nothing i did was really important, but i enjoyed it anyway.
• i looked for extra things to do, things others needed, contributions that were outside the job description, things that i wanted to do and could do and offer in my own way. these, too, made more space for me to work.
• i noticed the messes i made, the things i forgot to do, the things i avoided, and the things left half-finished in distraction. i noticed, too, the things that other did before i could get to them. this made more space for everybody.
• i appreciated the compassion and kindness of the community here, which allowed me to notice that most often the pushing and pressure to do well or fast or right arises somewhere internally, in the comfort of my own mind.
• i noticed that there is no way to finish the work here, only contribute and enjoy along the way. i have practiced letting my shoulders slide down and rest where they belong, hanging loosely at the bottom of my neck. i’ve practice jangling a bit as i bop around with bits of three or four or five different tasks in my hands at once.
• i notice again the value and importance of care, connection, attention, space, compassion, mutuality, pulsation, contribution, offering, receiving, humor, laughing, leftovers, peanut butter, bran flakes, brown rice, fresh kale, broccoli, olive oil, red pepper and brie cheese, and dsl are to my well-being.

starting into a more stable scheduling routine as kitchen yogi (cook’s assistant) now, expecting more time for playing with jill, online projects, walking around the big city, and taking tea with friends of friends.

Chris Corrigan reminded me of this the other day. A gem I’ve blogged before from his past (march 11th).

…Utah Phillips, the old anarchist folk singer, began perusing the bookshelves and was immediately struck by the huge number of books from the ultra conservative John Birch Society. His initial reaction was to ask himself what he was doing there, about to have a conversation with a man who was bound to feed him political babble that Phillips would find deeply offensive.

And then he caught himself and he realized that he wasn

It’s a campaign and coalition being held up with the likes of the sufferage, abolitionist, and anti-apartheid movements that have already succeeded in much of the world. Today, it was Nelson Mandela in Trafalgar Square rallying a crowd of thousands to support fair trade, not free trade, just trade, not charity.

He was introduced to the cheering crowd as the President of the World and he joked about coming to speak here publicly after recently announcing his retirement from public life. In his short speech he suggested the willful and conscious continuation of the current state of extreme poverty for so many at the same time that some others live in extreme wealth is equivalent to a crime against humanity. That we have the means to end poverty and do not can never be acceptable.

The day was damp, gray, and chilly. A hard day to ignite crowds and a sedate crowd by my own American standards. And what are so many little people to do in the face of this story of about global trade and G8 meetings of national finance ministers, anyway?

The answer, the small change answer, was given by the guy who opened the day, I got there after he was introduced, so I don’t even know who he is. What he did was invite everyone to take out their mobile phones and text message Tony Blair. He called out the number and thousands of people punched it in and sent a message to “Make Poverty History.” Personally, I am reminded again that I need to understand better what some of these “free” and “fair” terms mean. I want to for myself what really makes sense for all of us, and within that, what I can actually do now.

The most exciting part of the day for me was riding my borrowed bicycle back home, negotiating a number of major roundabouts around the bridges that cross the Thames. My thanks to the bus driver and the truck driver… you guys know who you are… who were looking out for me! Maybe bicycling and looking out for each other, person-to-person, in everyday traffic is the best start.

Sir Bob Geldof, of rock and roll and Live Aid fame, introduced Nelson Mandela and made reference to centuries of gatherings in Trafalgar Square, of little people showing up, shouting out, linking arms and working for human rights. It seems that there is now the opportunity for a new kind of linking — of keyboards, blogs and people, signing on, posting it up, and blogrolling others. These small changes seem bound to make a world of difference.

We posted a new biography today, documenting the compassion and kindness of Julie Henderson, at the Zapchen Somatics website. See the doc for bibliothings and the rest of the story, but here’s a delicious little taste:

…It may be initially helpful to consider what compassion is not. For example, compassion is not pity, nor sympathy, or even empathy. There is a wide range of views about compassion and kindness. Some of these views are narrow and small and others expansive. An Australian dictionary defines compassion as “feelings of distress and pity for the suffering or misfortune of another.” A somewhat broader view is that of Feldman and Kornfield, who state that compassion “is a deep, heartfelt caring for the dignity, well-being and integrity of every single life in our world – from the smallest creature to the most powerful person.”

Lama Zopa Rinpoche, a Tibetan lama, alludes to “great compassion”, which is the “wish that all sentient beings might be free of all suffering and the resolve to bring this about ourselves.” Another well-known Tibetan Buddhist teacher Sogyal Rinpoche, states that “compassion is not true compassion unless it is active.” Within the Tibetan Buddhist pantheon there are numerous Buddas of Compassion. For example, Chenrezig is a four-armed Buddha of Compassion with the six-syllable mantra

Flash Mind Reader at Addicting Games… how does this work???

via Penny Scott

Finally got to spend a couple hours with Euan Semple yesterday at the BBC. Ping. Ping Ping PIng… Lookout here we come! Another dizzy-making batch of connectings.

How can two guys who’ve never met in person, and traded only a few short messages in a year and a half, be working on so much in common? Mileage may vary, dates and places are all different of course, but Euan and I, and the other bloggers I’m crossing paths with over here, are definitely all heading somewhere in common. In commons. Same shapes, one mind, real heart.

I can’t help but wonder what this vast embracing web of us is really up to. And can it be long now ’til something big (whatever that means) really clicks in? Chris mailed this morning to suggest that our 100bloggers chapter might focus on Conversation.

More and more this is looking like some sort of Vast Left-Click Conversation.

This is the funniest damned thing I’ve ever seen in a blog — a brand new comment to an months old posting. The good news is that I’m well on my way to having my 100bloggers contribution written! The bad news is I have to admit that my favorite posting in more than 18 months of blogging was written by somebody else! What do you think?

Found your site on the web because you mentioned “Hoovering.” My Hoover just went out. I know it is a faulty connection, because it went out repeatedly in my hands when I wiggled the wire to the switch. So, all I need to do is open it up and resecure the wire, right?

Well, the Hoover is plastic, so it snaps together, and I’ll be danged if I can’t get it open to at least look and see if I can see a loose connection. But noooooo. . . . .

The manual on the web shows how to snap it together, but does not show how to “unsnap” it. I bet I can lug this thing to a shop, and if they are not too busy, will charge me $50 for a simple screw tightening, but will have to wait two weeks (if they don’t forget about me) to justify the 50 buck charge!

So . . . . . . I had this brilliant idea after I realized that your blog site was not a Hoover repair site!

What if, . . . .

Someone turned their blog site into a repair chat room!!!

Somebody probably had the same problem and found a way around it. They would probably be willing to share it with others, just so that lazy repair man can’t rip off other unsuspecting blokes for 50 bucks or so.

Think of all the traffic it could generate. Think of the advertising royalties. Think of all the satisfied people.

The site would not have to be up-dated. New visitors would write of other ways to solve the problems. The old solutions could be archived “for ever” in case the new way wasn’t quite as good, or models changed, etc. The site would take care of itself. It is just a self generating chat room!

What do you think?

I think I’m laughing my arse off… and on a real practical level, this is exactly the shape of thing that sCNN is just now seeking to create, for a different kind of equipment. I feel the same way about wasting energy on 501c3 status as this guy feels about wasting money on hoover repairs!

As it turns out, just hours before this came in, I’d really run out of gas and started to doubt the whole sCNN process. In some crazy twisted way, going forward now makes just a wee bit more sense again. I’ve no idea where this came from, crazy old friend or crazy new, but it sure did the trick for me last night! Thanks!

UPDATE: checked the stats, and sure enough… I’m #2 on msn.com search for hoover repairs!

Dan Oestreich on self-care and leadership today…

…am I living this joy today or have I covered it up in my search for accomplishment, in my devotion to my causes?

He continues on about responsibility, how it can take us outside of ourselves, away from ourselves. Alternatively, we take it too much into ourselves. The sensations show up for me as deflation and collapse, pressure and stiffness, grabbing or resisting.

Joy, on the other hand, is something that I find naturally arising, whenever I can come back to myself and restart the pulsation. I come back to a view that sees me and my surroundings, me and my job, me and my relationships, as simultaneous but distinct. Dan quotes Pema Chodron on the sensation of softening.

If I understand correctly, the choice to soften to the world lets the two, me and the rest of everything else, pull apart a bit, mind settles releases its grip. Body settles. Rest becomes possible. Muscles slacken. Tissues stretch. Fluids and joints move more freely. I embody the resiliences Dan’s stories illustrate. In mutuality terms, I let myself be as real to me as is everything arising outside of me, work, relationships, interests, all distractions.

This is related to why I’m about to turn down my fifth and sixth chances to move to a bigger cell here. I find that there is no room in this smallest cell for anything but me. The rest of the Centre stays outside. I am held closely, inside, and solidly, distinct.

My own habit in work is to make my field of awareness quite big. Sometimes I get wispy and thin in the middle. I sense the whole of this building complex, paying attention to everything a little and to myself almost nothing at all. Then I come back to my cell, and come back to myself.

I wonder now if that is the same effect as is provided by an internet connection. Distinct because distant, while wired still into the web? Joy as a binary pulse? Everybody wave.

i posted this over in jill’s blog, but i like it so much that i wanted to put it here, too. a few more cell shots here in the PeaSoup Notebook.

I’ve got just three more days of working on the hospitality team, then i move into new role as kitchen yogi, aka cook’s assistant. that’s a steadier schedule that should allow more sleep in between meetings with people around london and working on scnn. I’m about halfway through my six-month tour of service here at jamyang.

Thanks to Karen who smacked this James Michener quote into a comment a few posts back…

As master in the art of living you draw no distinction between your work and your play, your labor and your leisure, your mind and your body, your education and your recreation, your love and your religion. You hardly know which is which. You simply pursue your vision of excellence through whatever you are doing and leave it to others to determine if you

As I’m getting around to meet people here in London for the first time, I’m finding the best conversations simply defy memory. Or maybe mutuality defies memory.

It has been my habit, ability, or perhaps my failure, to walk away from conversations with a fairly detailed mental rendering of where we went and how we got there. Lately, however, I’ve been taking this time of meeting a number of new people, with little real agenda, to practice listening differently.

I’m paying more attention to where attention goes. Refining the pulsation between me and you. Coming back more often to check if I’m sitting in easy alignment. Pulsing too between personal interests and income opportunities, histories and plans, brain and base. Letting all of these things inform all the rest.

Sometimes I notice that I’m doing it all quite well, and other times I notice that I’m way off. I hope I’m noticing sooner than I used to. Along the way, I’ve been amazed at what I’m not able to recall, at least in words, at the close of these conversations. I get thrown off by moments of not knowing where we’ve been or might go, and then a path appears. We go on. The shape of all things just keeps unfolding.

Today’s conversation was with Andy Borrows, at the Crypt Cafe, beneath St. Martin-in-the-Fields parish, off Trafalgar Square. The sign upstairs on the church door declares it as “…a place of worship… a business… [and] a care organization…” What better place to have a mutuality conversation?

And true to my story, I can hardly remember where more than three hours went, but I did come away with real things to do next. Most exciting, we’ll be working together, with Chris Corrigan, on Chris’ chapter of the 100bloggers book project. And Andy’s got a headful of Open Space to fish around in with colleagues back at work. Looking forward to another round, too.

UPDATE: Andy’s version

Just before going on duty here this morn, I read this about Hillary Clinton’s speech on abortion rights. Later on, as I’m setting out cushions and pads in the shrine room here at Jamyang, in preparation for tonight’s teachings, over and over again my mind keeps returning to the moment of this story.

Hugely divisive issue. Common ground. Pro-Choice and Pro-Life. Common ground. Clinton. Common ground. Hmmm… could it be? No, I don’t mean resolution. And it’s not so much the issue, the person, or the politics, but something more or other, something in the twist of it all. Something in the moment. A new shape of mind? …a light? …a space? …a way on?

I can’t quite explain it, but something about the shape and moment of this story just sparkled a bit. Maybe it’s hope. Something in this mix makes mutuality seem more likely, on abortion and beyond. It is but a speck, and still mind plays it over and over.

Choice and Life need not be, and cannot be, separate and opposing. Hopeful, I suppose, because this moment turned up at the center of American politics. If you can’t beat ’em, join ’em: Choose Life and Life Choices.

This popped up in the mailbag this morn, in response to yesterday’s posting:

…if everyone found work that they were passionate about and work and life merged, that would truly be the end of large corporations – I just don’t think any company can find thousands of people passionate and aligned with why the company exists, ready to merge their lives in pursuit of making the company succeed….

Not sure they’d go away, but they sure would be different. Consider that many tasks would go away, many of those seem likely to be related to gaining and maintaining control over others.

Furthermore, it might not be a problem to find people who are passionate about the work, but for how long? The most successful companies may or may not be smaller ones, and their turnover rates might actually rise significanly. Passion is volatile. Get in, work like crazy, get out. Mission accomplished.

Then, there would be more time for other, non-income things between jobs/companies, too. Instead of working for the middle forty years of life, we might work in more and shorter spurts, and longer into life. Retirement might be more seasonal, too. So it seems what we really need is more social and cultural support for the sabbatical.

Frithjof Bergmann (sp?) has done a bunch of stuff, though not much web-published, on what he calls New Work. A snippet…

Much of work is horrific; it maims and disfigures people, physically and emotionally. But work also has an opposite pole; it can be ecstatic and entrancing, so much so that “sex has to be good indeed to stand the competition with the most delicious and fantastic work.”

So given that some things really do require large corporate-type orgs to deliver, might we end up with delicious, fantastic, sexy corporations? Or perhaps a lifelong string of on again, off again, one-year stands?

I followed one of Euan’s threads this evening and found an older post by his friend Claire. What she says rings true for me:

The concept of work life balance is dead. If you find what you are passionate about and can do that for a living, then there is no boundary between what is work and what is life. Your work becomes your life and your life becomes your work.

I spent Friday afternoon taking in the surprisingly spacious and beautiful territory that is Kensington Gardens and Hyde Park, catching up on life and work, hopelessly (hopefully?) interwined, with my friend and colleague Bliss Browne.

She had twelve hours in London, between Chicago and Johannesburg, and I got about half of them. A one-time resident of these parts, she led our tour. A few small things already blooming and daffodils poking through bravely… in January! This might be the first winter of my life I don’t see any snow.

We did a big loop in the park, stopped for lunch, and then jumped on a computer and had another blogging lesson. She’s dipping her toe in at Ubumama, the newest addition to the projects blogroll at sCNN. It’s good to link and work with friends.

…and totally different.

I had a long first conversation with Heather Sim in Glasgow, Scotland today. She’s developing projects with youth and businesses… to feed the businesses, and the youth. It’s mutuality writ large.

When I stood back to notice how many instances of these really amazing projects are popping up these days, it occured to me that someday I’ll be talking with my kids or other kids, and they’ll be asking questions about what it was like when I was young. And they’ll be screwing up their faces in disbelief when I tell them about silos and limits and scarcity mentalities, because it will be so different from the world they know. Like 50s days were to us in grade school. Weird.

…Department of Health, that is, here in the UK. Read an article this past weekend (while I was sitting around doing nothing, for a change) about new health recommendations for eating 9 servings of fruits and vegetables daily. I went to the website to check out the portion size info and discovered that the DH homepage is a blog. I feel better already!