Community of Process
I'm still jazzed from the Whitman Institute's first ever retreat comprising all the organizations it funds. It was great to meet the inspiring people who founded these seemingly disparate groups. It didn't take long for me to come to the notion that we all were part of what I'd call a greater "community of process".
For a good while, I'd felt that SPI's mission was more kindred spirit to organizations/endeavors that don't necessarily have dialogue as their centerpiece. I came away from the TWI gathering with a more articulate understanding of why that is so. One can engage (or claim to engage) in various forms of dialogue without necessarily having process as its underpinning. Indeed, it may be the case that some forms of dialogue can impede process. On the other hand, as I came to learn about the organizations that TWI funds, there's an array of undertakings in which dialogue per se is not the principal driving force. I remember one participant saying that John Esterle enabled him to realize that his project was process oriented -- that his undertaking was more about the journey than a fixed or finite destination, which might well change over time as he continues with it and engages in the experimental-creative process.
But what all taking part in the retreat clearly seemed to share were similar processes and shared ends -- namely, working towards doing their part to achieving a more inclusive, open society, and directing their singular energies and efforts and talents to breaking down divides that make the world less connected than it ideally can be.
I know I wasn't the only participant who professed at times feeling a sense of going-it-aloneness. It isn't that we didn't know there were many other kindred endeavors out there, only we hadn't had an opportunity to meet with them in an intimate setting and come to a keener realization of how connected we are.
I left the retreat with keen sense that most of us on hand were, in spite of ostensible differences, involved at our core with virtually precisely the same effort and ends and ideals. It left me more inspired than ever to do what I can, in my modest way, to keep fighting the good fight.
Everyone from the retreat is still "present" with me. I want to praise John Esterle for going out there and discovering so many involved in seminal ways in this community of process, and bringing us all together. As we move forward, it will be intriguing to see how this circle ever widens, changes, morphs (probably because of its inherently creative and unpredictable bent it will become less of a circle than a sort of fractal which takes off in all kinds of unexpected directions and ways). Onward and upward and outward.