AFTERSHOCK -- NOW WHAT
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From: Jeanie D.
Date: Friday, September 26, 2008, 11:58 AM
Subject: Aftershock -- Now What
Reply to: 264809
ID: 264815

Dear Ann,

Although LightPages is involved here and bears some responsibility for the situation as it stands, I'd like to speak as Jeanie, the person, and not in any official capacity. I'm sure that the Sophia leadership will respond to both your and Barb's thoughtful and helpful syntheses, when they are available.

From my vantage point, a process of differentiation is occurring, not only within the Sophia leadership, but also for me. What is mine to say/do, and what is not? What is LightPages' to say/do, and what is not? What relationships empower me toward a real contribution in these times, and which do not? What is the quality of leadership that is required of me right now?

You wrote, Ann, "And, for the record, very few people believe this can be blamed on 1 - 2 individuals "out there." Whatever is off base is happening "in here" and reflects a whole culture, not an individual. Blaming us, or others, for these choices and actions shows NO taking of responsibility and confirms what we are seeing, and saying."

And with this, I heartily agree... We are as a culture finding blame, and here is also where I am feeling the differentiation process. Can I begin to operate outside of my culture and simply STOP PARTICIPATING in the blame game, NO MATTER HOW I FEEL. No one by themselves is at fault, even leadership of our nation. All patterns, all decisions emerge out of a mutuality of some sort. Together we have made choices and built this culture upon a sense of polarity... right/wrong, good/bad, and there is only time now to choose a different foundation, to build another foundation... of trust and collaboration.

I feel we are REALLY called to this choice in every moment. Our entire civilization is at risk, while politicians debate who is most self-serving! Like a trumpet in my heart I hear every day: HOW CAN I FIND A CONSTRUCTIVE CHOICE NOT BLAMING ANYONE, assuming everyone is doing the best they can in this moment.

And my 19 year old daughter provided a key for me, with a realization she shared yesterday. She told me about listening to someone go on and on, without pause, until inside of her, she heard herself say, "Do you realize I'm a person?".

And that feels like a key to me... to realize the personness, the alive negotiation of complexity that we all are, whatever positions we're in, to open to the possibility of real relationships with the personness of each other.

These were the thoughts that came up for me this morning, and however we proceed here, however this episode in human interaction may be woven into the whole, I am really appreciating that we are each reaching toward real relationship (no matter how it looks).

Thanks for listening (smiling to remember my daughter's words... real people out there)
With love, Jeanie