Four levels
Four levels (of consciousness?):
1. Back to the wall looking out
2. Individual looking out
3. We
4. Unitive
:- Doug.
Archive for October 8th, 2007
The groan zone and the good of the group
Chris Corrigan has a post about the groan zone, the place in between seeing the problem (divergence) and coming together with how we will address it (convergence). It is here that chaos looks like bedlam or pandemonium, with no rhythm nor reason.
But it has a rhythm and there is a strange attractor or many, and the tune is always heard.
This is valid description of group process. We do always seem to go from a simple statement of the problem, to seeing a mess—and then we stop.
The good of the group is that it shows the way beyond to imagination. This is the same thing I have noticed about myself, often getting stuck in the other person’s groan zone. This Is a way to see toward imagination. Imagination is the answer, and it comes with hope. This is Meg Wheatley’s I do not know why it is so.
:- Doug.
The Age of …
What is going on in our day is not the compressed single movement of freedom v. tyranny of the French revolution nor the bread riots of 1800 England; rather we see movements to eliminate all Muslims or all Christians, hatred of minorities, and minorities marching. Great diversity and swirling chaos contribute to our confusion. We choose, if we choose at all, but tentatively. Ours is the Age of Confusion, we lament.
But it is not so; Complexity is its true name. The age demands to meet all of us.
Great diversity and swirling chaos: this is the stuff of prophecy. If we keep on addressing only what presents itself, if we seek merely for underlying causes, we get what we have got: great diversity and swirling chaos. We must go even deeper. We must seek to bring all of our emotions and all of our individually limited reasoning to bear until we get past the groanings where we can bring all of our imaginations to bear. Then we weave the chaos into the service of all.
:- Doug.
