Art of Convening: Graduate Community

From AoC Grad William Sebrans

Greetings AoCers
As  Heartland is an agora for delicious words and igniting story  let me share my walkabout with Martin Prechtel,, a wordsmsithing, storylelling, visual and song artist whose work are fountains of deliciousness and inspiration for your the words that float on your precious breath...

Robert Bly refers to Prechtel's work as "a treasure house of language in service to life." Clarissa Pinkola Estes, author of Women Who Run with the Wolves, declares "the Mayan gods, who hold eloquence above all else, must surely be pleased with his soul, who, in this lifetime, is named Martin Prechtel."

Below are a few excepts from an interview that took place, obviously for the likes of you, members of Heartland...

..."A master of innovative language, Prechtel works to promote the vitality hidden in language...

Prechtel described the power of poetic language as the greatest weapon against death.

"Death wrestles you, but not with machine guns or bombs or sarcasm," he said, "and you then fight back with poetry; you beguile death; but you can't kill it. Death loves words so much it will make a deal with you. It says 'I'll give you back your soul if on a regular basis if you send messages to the holy.'"

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"The spoken story becomes the way people know how to live inside a certain landscape," he began. "It takes the landscape to contain story - that mythology that has all the details of the dismemberment and rememberment - the words utilized are of such force that it causes the young people to grasp at the things they do not comprehend."

It's an initiatory process that takes years for people to "get closer to beauty."

"They go through a personal transformation that takes them out of the sibling nonsense and into community accountability," he continued. "So words can be utilized to link them up to something enormous, a ritual feeding of what is Holy in nature."

If done correctly, the "Holy in Nature" can be fed by the way we walk, speak, or even gesture, he added.

"As long as we're working for the benefit of the human, we're working with a narrow vision," he noted. "We need to keep the Holy before and after the human. Only then can humans become a very large beautiful thing speaking human to human. The real initiations are those that cause us to become something that feeds life beyond ourselves. It's not self involvement or self enlightenment. It's something beyond yourself for the universe."

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And....

What does a shaman have to say about coping with modern violence and this time of war?

"You love what you love more than you love your hate," he advised. "If what you love is the divine, story, culture, children, then instead of blowing a whistle, you'll strive to keep the seeds alive."

I hope that was tasty,

William Sebrans

The president's Nobel Honors His "Dignitarian" Politics

No matter your political leaning, Bob Fuller's letter below on Dignitarian Politics and our president articulates a point of view i have not seen or heard in the media dominated public discourse. What do you think?

Craig

Politics Some will say that Barack Obama’s Nobel Prize is premature. “What has he done?” they’ll ask.

Obama got the prize not for doing, but for being. Not for making peace, but for exemplifying something new on the world stage--the politics of dignity.

The Nobel Committee has simply made explicit what many have sensed. President Obama is the herald of dignitarian politics. Not libertarian, not egalitarian, but dignitarian.

Dignitarian politics represents a modern synthesis of libertarian and egalitarian politics. War between these two battle-scarred, exhausted ideologies shaped both national and international politics throughout the twentieth century. Obama is the first politician of world stature to identify and model an alternative that can meet the challenges of the twenty-first. Awarding him the Nobel Prize is an expression of the hope that our best chance for world peace lies in the dignitarian politics of which Obama is an exemplar.

What is dignitarian politics? It is the recognition that people the world over actually want dignity more than either liberty or equality. In policy terms, it means ensuring dignity for all--within and among nations.

Obama’s dignitarianism manifests in his inclusiveness, his style, and his manners. Domestically, dignitarian politics supercedes identity politics to embrace blacks and whites, men and women, gays and straights, young and old, rich and poor, immigrants and the native-born. The president has also made a point of reaching out to those who disagree with him both domestically and internationally.

The Nobel Prize will put pressure on Obama to make explicit his reasoning for what has been, up till now, a largely instinctive pursuit of the politics of dignity. Dignitarian politics means not condescending to Americans or citizens of other countries. It means not treating political opponents, whether at home or abroad, with indignity. It also means extending dignity in concrete ways, both political and economic, throughout the world. In programmatic terms, the quest for dignity is usefully conceived of as overcoming rankism

--the abuse of a power advantage to demean, hold at a disadvantage, or dehumanize those with less power.

Globally, Obama’s politics of dignity makes Americans safer, in contrast to policies that, by humiliating others, leave us vulnerable to retaliation. Indignities inflicted on others make them indignant and so predispose them to side with our enemies, if not turn against us themselves. President Obama understands that part of a strong defense is not giving offense in the first place. He realizes that in an interdependent world, muscular exceptionalism is a losing strategy.

Dignitarian politics has a host of immediate, practical consequences for international affairs. If President Obama is seen as reacting defensively to indignities served up by his opponents, he will appear weak. But if he goes on the offensive, not against those opponents themselves, but rather in favor of the emergent politics of dignity, at which he is a natural, he will prevail. Awarding President Obama the Peace Prize is a bet on the Nobel Committee’s part that the honor will support him in implementing the politics of dignity that he heralds. Robert W. Fuller Tel: (510) 841-0964 E-mail: bfuller@igc.org Website: http://www.breakingranks.net Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/robertwfuller Twitter: http://twitter.com/robertwfuller

Quote from Ipek- AoC #31

AoCers

Here is the quote from Ipek Kursat of group #32  read to us during her 1st session.
Craig

 

Another thousand years has completed its cycle.
Nature responded to each cycle of time.
How have human beings conformed to the demands of time?
How have human beings enhanced the greatness of this planet?
Everything we think, say, and do in our lives
                Has a ripple effect on the planet.
We never know what is coming,
                But we do know our actions yield consequences.
And so the millennium is a great new beginning.
A sparkling turning point.
And with each turning point there is greater responsibility,
                As well as fresh, invigorating expectation!
It is an auspicious time to pay homage
to all those who sacrificed their lives
                for the upliftment of humanity.
It is a chance to make a wow
                To respect and love one another with kindness.
As we turn another corner in time
                Let us support one another in our best efforts.
Let us pray to serve the highest in everyone.
 
May we offer gratitude to the past.
May we extend a warm welcome to the future.
May we live with wisdom in the present.
 
Together, may we make this world a better paradise.
 
Gurumayi Chidivilasananda
From “Prayers for a Thousand Years: Blessingssand Expressions of Hope for the New Millennium

Grad Intensive Saturday at Acqua Hotel, Mill Valley Calif

We've got a few spaces remaining for the AoC Grad Intensive Workshop in the Bay Area at the beautiful Acqua Hotel in Mill Valley, Calif. Craig and several members of the current Advanced group will be leading the day long workshop on the 9 aspects of the AoC Conveners Wheel.

Workshop includs b'fast, lunch and materials at this amazing bay side center.

Join us in the Circle!

Welcome new AoC Grads!

Congratulations to Graduates of the most recent AoC Series 29 & 30! It's been a great 6 months; we look forward to more adventures together as the Graduate community grows.

The AoC Graduate blog and Community calls keep our widespread community together, especially for Nils in Poland and those of you who travel far and wide. Register now for the next Grad Community Call, Tue. 9/15/09, 8am Central US.  (We alternate call times between evenings and mornings to accommodate varied schedules and time zones.)

Don't forget... AoC Graduate Intensive Workshops

AoC Graduate Intensive Workshop
Sat. Sept. 12/CA or Sat. Oct. 3/MN
Introducing the 9 ways to transform your meetings, gatherings and conversations.

Join Craig, assisted by AoC Advanced Grads, for a one-day intensive workshop in either California (9/12) or Minnesota (10/3). The AoC Grad Intensive Workshop is based on new material, practices and processes from the upcoming book The Art of Convening: 9 Ways to Transform your Meetings, Gatherings and Conversations. Register now.

The Medicine Way- FireHawk & Pele

FireHawk and Pele Rouge bring an ancient “medicine”  teaching perspective on Leadership to the Minnesota TLG this Friday, 8/7. We will be working with the “4 Shields of Leadership” - Creator/Adventurer/Healer/Warrior - they will guide us through a process and conversation to expand our stories and experience of who we are as leaders.

THE CONVENERS WHEEL