Human to Human

I listened to some friends’ podcast recently. A couple of thoughtful and wise gentlemen. They talked meaning. Desire for belonging. Human goodness. Deception. Fuckery. Sweetness. In such good, thoughtful ways — in the end, both are teachers, and both dig bikes that you peddle.

Their context aligns with one of the main contexts that has most influence my life, discovered and aligned in the early 1990s. Thx Meg. She was the one talking living systems and daring to presuppose that organizations too are living systems, that, through their connections at scale, get to experience emergent everything — kindness, wisdom, commitment, curiosity, determination, perseverance — and all the rest.

Yeah. Rants on rants. Affirmations on affirmations. So, here’s what I offered / affirmed to these lovely men.

Yes, people seek meaning. Which is to say, people seek connection and authenticity. They Always have (except for a few absolute shits).

We create the ground for connection through conversations, bikes, walks, pubs, potlucks, fire pits.

Sometimes the connection is casual. Sometimes very deliberate with specific questions to ask and dreams to dream. For now and for the longer arc.

From that grows the next steps. Emergent relations. Emergent insights. Emergent ahas and plans.

It’s the natural way of living systems applied to these over-cognitized and uber mechanized brains and bodies.

Tuesday clarity. Thx for reading / listening. A pebble in the pond.

Today I meet with my friend Lawrence. Online. 90 minutes. We’ve invited 5-6 others to join us. Our theme is The Art of Going Deeper. Going deeper as a yearning. As an angst. As a passion. As a birthright. As a wonder. As a hunch. Lawrence and I have been having these conversations with regularity over the last two years. We are experimenting now with the small group.

Today I imagine some of the conversation to be about contexts — In what context to you wish to go deeper? Relationships? A project? A particular circumstance? A general way of being? I’m really interested to lead with stories and contexts more than definitions, though I imagine it all to blur together.

And then, jumping to anticipated experience, I imagine a lifted energy amongst the group. A lifted and enjoyable quality of attention and kindness together. A shared yearning. Perhaps a witness of unique yearning. When we create a space to yearn together, such as these — just enough intention and structure to hold some free-flow and surprise — well then something important tends to happen.

Feel free to add your reflections. In what contexts do you wish to go deeper?

Me: The big one for me today is this present moment. The moment with Lawrence. This group of beautifully yearning people. I wish to go deeper with the simple invitation and the initial presence that helps so much. I wish that going deeper so as to interrupt the ways that I diffuse my depth, frankly, by worrying about too many things. Yup. Hmm.

You? In what contexts do you currently wish to go deeper?

Nice piece here from The Marginalian (thx Jeremy for sending it my way.

Ain’t this the discipline and invitation and maturing that so many of us are working on.

In a world pocked by cynicism and pummeled by devastating news, to find joy for oneself and spark it in others, to find hope for oneself and spark it in others, is nothing less than a countercultural act of courage and resistance.

This is not a matter of denying reality — it is a matter of discovering a parallel reality where joy and hope are equally valid ways of being. To live there is to live enchanted with the underlying wonder of reality, beneath the frightful stories we tell ourselves and are told about it.

There’s a certain category of words that are slightly out of use, yet that I find attractive. Slightly playful.

Dandy.
Groovy.
Quirky.

They are fun to insert into moments of conversation. It’s like they invite a temporary suspension of the rules of the words that should be spoken.

Hmm…. I like temporary suspensions.

“Zeal” is another. And my friend Nicola used it recently in what of her invitations (Nicola will be featured next week in the B & B Series).

Zeal — it’s a tiny bit outrageous. How’s your zeal? Where’s your zeal coming from these days?

Nicola contexted her use of zeal with “curious, engaged, and alive.”

Gonna make it a “zeal” day.

Join me? Or us next Wednesday.