Thursday, June 2, 2022

BUOYANCY



Afloat on the Dead Sea, From Wikimedia Commons, the free media repository ©John Norton

https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:A_float_on_the_Dead_Sea.jpg

 

 

SHARING A POEM

In May, Meridian University in California held a conference where integral practitioners shared their ways of weaving peace in their environments (business and other domains).

On the (Centre for Transformative Learning) convergence panel that I was on, were panel members from the Netherlands, India and Norway. We spoke about our methodologies, techniques, practices. Our ups and downs. 

https://meridianuniversity.edu/public-programs/workshops-and-events/integral-practitioner-convergence-2022/

A plan was that we would each share a poem that was meaningful to us, but the conversation veered in another direction - so we never got to do that.

But a couple of weeks later I was able to share the poem that I had set aside - on a hosted-from-Russia conference (driven by Artem Mushin-Makedonskiy for the Historia Academy) on the topic of using story to change business culture, https://historia.academy/storify2022-en

 

WHAT LED UP TO MY CHOICE OF THIS PARTICULAR POEM

After a long stint in big corporate life, I became a high-flying, independent   management consultant working in many countries in many sectors, addicted to success, achievement.

This period in my career was stopped short by a bout with cancer that led to 2 years of surgery and inactivity. And of course, ones’ customer base doesn’t hang around!  So before starting again I had to make use of this wake - up call. My reflections led me to move away from over-valuing position/ possessions/ power/ pleasure of the hedonistic kind/ and the seeking for perfection. And instead to begin straddling the intrinsic values of higher purpose and meaning/ other people/presence/ personhood and care for the planet. 

On this new path I discovered the value of story as a powerful potential contributor to business success - beyond being confined to a limited role in training, scenario-formation, and motivational talks by leaders. 

I saw that story was hugely underused. And over time I’ve seen story adopted in business for initiating change, uncovering meaning, building teams and a host of other areas where story-communication makes a difference.  I’ve gravitated to using story together with circle work and seen first - hand how (among other areas) corporate culture, values and artifacts, symbols and norms can be beautifully shifted by this process and the very special dynamics that come into play. 

Underlying all of this journey was a growing realisation that ultimately LOVE is the highest value, the highest virtue. Inside and outside of the business world. In 2014 I wrote: 

“Some day, after we have mastered the winds, the waves, the tides and gravity, we shall harness for God the energies of love. Then for the second time in the history of the world, man will have discovered fire” (Pierre Teilhard de Chardin, French theologian, scientist, philosopher) 

An ignored force in the corporate world One of the ‘flights of the mind’ I’ve had for some time is the notion that the word ‘love’ will at last enter the vocabulary of the hardnosed business world”… and be practised…”… love is being authentic, not wily; being transparent and not Machiavellian; being the wearing of your heart on your sleeve rather than holding your cards close to your chest; trusting in the success that comes from setting an aspirational standard; being an example rather than outwitting an opponent; a readiness to show vulnerability. It is also about being human and realizing that the only currency that makes for sound business relationships is a capacity to discern motives that are borne of LOVE. It is about having a code or language that is based on respect, validation and ‘seeing the other’”. (Williams, G. 2014)  Being focused on the good of others and self-emptying.

The first two lines and last two lines of a Rumi poem have yielded more and more meaning for me. Maybe it will speak to you too?

The poem is called BOYANCY. (Rumi. 1995)

As we journey together in families, communities, as business colleagues or other relationships, what counts is how we freely share our experiences, feelings, information, stories. 

What counts is how we come alongside and instead of seeing through each other, we see each other through. 

What counts is that when we speak, it is to express and not to impress. 

Think companionship and think compassion – they are part of the same root word – and I fear the new world that is emerging is fast losing both. 

Love is more than ever an imperative in our polarising, dividing, fragmenting, alienating world.

 

THE POEM

Love has taken away all my practices

And filled me with poetry

Feel the motions of tenderness around you, 

the buoyancy

 

Love has taken away all my practices

Love cuts through complexity, masks, fears. Techniques, methodologies and processes all fall away ultimately. Love is what makes us open to being our vulnerable selves, accepting others unconditionally, accepting their differences and worldviews, working from an ethical and other-serving basis.  

Rowan Williams, theologian and poet, reminds us: “Moral courage is the capacity to act out of pressure generated from the inside rather than the outside”. (Williams, R. 2021) This inside-out way of being surely applies to the practicing of our crafts and interacting and transacting from a place of love.

 

And filled me with poetry 

Poetry is said to date back to thousands of years BC. Being filled with poetry  opens up a capacity to see beauty (even in imperfection), see the bigger picture, go deeply beyond words, discern truth, be able to bridge to others.

(Although far too simplistic a statement) the controversial philosopher Martin Heidegger believed that poetry was far less focused than technology on reasoned calculation, measuring, ordering, classifying, steering, manipulating. And far, far more focused on meaningful existence, experience and deeper truth. (Blitz, M 2014)) Filled in order to empty. Self-empty for others. Kenosis.

 

Feel the motions of tenderness around you

This line triggers for me thinking about and experiencing a calm, relaxed floating upon, being touched by, and moving with the flow of gentle waves … of love

 

the buoyancy

An all-round feeling of being a part of something greater than ourselves. A life force. A spirit of love which embraces, lifts and holds us up, keeps us safe, carries us through. We are immersed in love and thus continue giving love. Heaviness becomes lightness. 

 

That’s what the Rumi lines say to me. Your engagement with them may be different.

We live in treacherous and dangerous times, but can draw hope from this: “The great historian, Arnold Toynbee’s analyses of how great changes occur, including the building of civilizations, led him to conclude that it is spiritual forces that determine the course of history. The power of inner work and spiritual maturity should never be underestimated”. (Williams, G. et al 2022)

Is the capacity of our finite minds simply far too limited to more – than – partially - understand, appreciate and operate with infinite concepts and gifts such as love? Maybe. But we are all currently who we are because of it. 

As Alana Levandoski says: “we are here because of love, and lack of love”. 

(Find out more about her here: https://www.alanalevandoski.com/ )

At least we can know that as we journey, the ripples of love that we bring to who we meet, what we think, feel and do, what we practice – these ripples reach out in ever-expanding circles that go where we know not.

 

REFERENCES

Blitz, Mark (2014) Understanding Heidegger on Technology: On whether thinking can save us The New Atlantis

https://www.thenewatlantis.com/publications/understanding-heidegger-on-technology 

Rumi, Jalal al-Din (1995) The Essential Rumi: translations by Coleman Barks with John Moyn, A.J. Arberry and Reynold Nicholson HarperSanFrancisco

Williams, Graham; Gargiulo, Terrence and Banhegyi, Steve. 2022. Story- Bridging:  create the connections and possibilities that build bridges. Books33, India. 2022)

Williams, Graham; Fox, Peter and Haarhoff, Dorian (2014) The Virtuosa Organisation: the importance of virtues for a successful business Knowres

Williams, Rowan (2021) Rowan Williams & Clare Martin talk about Moral Courage  Youtube 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=koLTeGg2hvM

 


 

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