Archive for February, 2009
Course Correction
Facing Reality
Dolly Sods didn’t turn out quite the way we had anticipated. We arrived Thursday evening around 4:30 prepared to hike to a nice winter destination and set up camp. We ascended to an area called Bear Rocks. As we climbed a howling wind kicked up in our faces. At the summit we encountered 50 mph winds that ripped through our clothing like a knife through butter. Read the rest of this entry »
In The Wilderness
Simple navigation
I’m in the Dolly Sods Wilderness as this email is being sent. I am trying to practice what I preach about getting distance from things so that I can see clearly. It is probably in the teens right now and the wind is kicking up at about 20 mph. We should be approaching the famous Lions Head as you read. It is also snowing.
The Dolly Sods Wilderness is in West Virginia. It is place that is very easy to get lost in. It takes an accurate map and a good compass to get you where you want to go. In that respect it is like most of life: you need to know where you would like to go, have a “map” that will show you how to get there, and have a compass that will steer you in the right direction.
No vision of where you want to go, no map, and no compass = no trajectory. If you hear from me next week I have at least navigated out of the Dolly Sods Wilderness. Head cleared, ready for anything.
Keep moving forward,
Greg
Imaginative Gridlock
What is your thinking chained to?
Mull on this for a while:
“When any relationship system is imaginatively gridlocked, it cannot get free simply through more thinking about the problem. Conceptually stuck systems cannot become unstuck simply by trying harder. For a fundamental reorientation to occur, that spirit of adventure which optimizes serendipity and which enables new perceptions beyond the control of our thinking processes must happen first. This is equally true regarding families, institutions, whole nations, and entire civilizations.
“But for that type of change to occur, the system in turn must produce leaders who can both take the first step and maintain the follow through in the face of predictable resistance and sabotage. Any renaissance, anywhere, whether in marriage or a business, depends primarily not only on new data and techniques, but on the capacity of leaders to separate themselves from the surrounding emotional climate so that they can break through the barriers that are keeping everyone from going the other way”
Edwin Friedman, A Failure of Nerve.
Friedman knew that without appropriate separation (or distance) from things we can’t unlock our imagination and move beyond where we are stuck. Read the rest of this entry »
Current Reading List
So where is my mind dwelling?
Here are a few of the books I have been allowing my mind to dwell on lately:
The Art of the Commonplace by Wendell Berry. (recommended by Nik Baltatzis)
(CURRENT READ)
This series of agrarian essays by Wendell Berry is fascinating to me. Berry is a writer, farmer and cultural voice from Kentucky. The book challenges the assumptions on which we base our modern way of life. Berry’s theme is that getting away from an agrarian, community based society will damage and eventually destroy our society.
A Failure of Nerve by Edwin H. Friedman (recommended by Mike Donohue)
(CURRENT READ) Read the rest of this entry »