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The betweens in conversation may describe a threshold—for instance of self-organization—where we might become a we or might stay on the other side: separate. Life is only found near this threshold, this fractal coast line; all else is death.

:- Doug.

As we move from middle age to elderhood it is possible something will emerge. A new phase, completely unexpected and unpredictable. Like water to ice, hydrogen and oxygen to wet, caterpillar to butterfly. If we look, we may hear: synesthesia.

As I have attended aging and wisdom, I have begun to see new things, new livingnesses.

:- Doug.

You may rest here in
the peace of mind which passes
from great tiredness

:- Doug.

Enfolding, unfolding
Evening, morning,
The next eon,
The next generation
Unfoldings, enfoldings

:- Doug.

child is born, mother
close enfolds, starts unfolding
ever: child, world: fold

:- Doug.

This is a fresh space in time
Conversation space
Hearing space
Wisdom space
Apart, a part, enfolded, unfolded

:- Doug.

Enfoldings unfoldings
Tuck into family
Go out to the world
Death, birth, which?
The way, our way,
All ways
Enfolding, unfolding

:- Doug.

What questions do you have about wisdom?

:- Doug.

Is it possible for the self to be completed?

:- Doug.

What are the tasks of aging?

:- Doug.

Footprints in the Wind^sm # 1634

Wisdom is the sky full of stars knowledge seeks to count.

Please pass it on.

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Do the smaller thing.

:- Doug.

What have been the tragedies in your life? List 5, converse, tell the stories.

:- Doug.

There is one life: what are you adding to the progress of the centuries?

:- Doug.

What changes in recent years do you notice about yourself?

:- Doug.

Which is bigger: Completing our task in the world—or never completing it?

:- Doug.

What is difficult about wisdom? What challenges you? Are you wise?

:- Doug.

Are you enthralled by this idea of a project that takes several lifetimes to complete? There are no guarantees it will be complete, and in any event, we will never know if it is. Yet here is something we must do, cannot do otherwise. What can it mean these days to do something to the glory of God? Or to stir men’s blood? Do we even have the capacity any more to dream that big? Have we become so accustomed to large projects done in a year with large machinery that we cannot see bigger still? Been there, done that, stars’ the limit, ho-hum? Maybe we have given up the notion that anyone can be a part of something larger, only the “big” people can do that?

:- Doug.

We become next
what we attend now
if wisdom, wise

:- Doug.

Not the tool
is crucial to the art
but the art
coming the artist
through

:- Doug.

What if in each development of life, we open the doors of perception most relevant now? So in child-rearing time we see what is good for the children, good for earning keep for them. In old age we see the past and the future and the world larger, longer term. We see beyond our own noses and bellies. Not simply a bigger view, a touching of what is beyond. A mystery.

:- Doug.

The issue with a multi-generation project is that it takes away the sense of a tangible end point, now. We, these egos, will not reach the finish line. At once this kills our self and enlarges it.

And yet…. The difference between the 200 year cathedral and “Creating a better future for the seventh generation” is more than tangible-intangible or concrete-abstract. It stirs human blood. It gives us something larger than my one life’s small needs to fill. It is about a sense of moving that something forward.

:- Doug.

Goals require a time statement: We will do what by when. So what if our time horizon were stated in multiples of lifetimes? Do we have the imagination? The guts? The persistence?

:- Doug.