Dear Organlearners,
I want to dedicate this contribution to Winfried Dressler.
He is fast mastering the art of speaking with silence.
He showed his mastery in the topic on "guts".
##############
What is a LO?
Rick describe it as follows:
A Learning Organization is one in which people at
all levels, individually and collectively, are continually
increasing their capacity to produce results they
really care about.
[Host's Note: That's on my LO web page, but actually it's a pretty direct
quote from Peter Senge. ..Rick]
Perhaps another way to describe it is:
Any organisation becomes a LO when every member
of it wants to work in it despite whatever happens.
I created this description because it reminds me of heaven.
What is heaven?
What is a heaven? It is a place where we want to live for
the rest of our lives.
Eternal life?
A LO is thus any kind of organisation with a heaven.
Let us have a LO dialogue on heaven. This is what I have
to say at this stage.
Is heaven itself not closed to us because no sound seems
to come from it, not even the voice of God? Are all the
descriptions we have of heaven not wishfull articulations
of humans? On the other hand, is heaven not a vivid
example of tacit knowledge which we will never be able in
this dispensation to articulate substantially? Is each
formalisation of the heaven not merely a heaven?
So, what is a heaven? Let us have a look at a heaven -- the
content. Let us also look at the complexity which we create
in the expression of a heaven -- the form. I will stress the
form by two contrasting systems of metaphors -- recreational
and technical
##############
LONG VERSION
Namgorab is a heaven. It is the most beautiful desert known
to me. It even includes those deserts which I only could read
about through the experiences of others.
~~~~~
Heaven is where love prevails forever.
~~~~~
I have not yet read a contribution on this list taking 24 hours
of carefull reading. But if I want to get to Namgorab from
Pretoria where I stay, I have to put in two days of hard driving
along the shortest route. Browsing en route makes it 4 or
more days. Taking a longer route to browse can take even
more than 7 days. It is these browsings which sustain the
journey for me.
~~~~~
Reaching heavenly love with entropy production
is a long route. It requires frequent browsing to
sustain carefull thinking.
~~~~~
Driving along whatever route gives ample opportunity to reflect
on places visited in the past. Here is a mountain range which
I have walked. There is a vast expanse of thicket in which I
got lost. Perhaps next time another visit to the cave where
the oldest artifacts in the world of human culture can be found.
Different routes lead to different experiences. Sometimes it
seems as silly as like going from New York to San Francisco
via Pretoria. But every new route counts, adding up to the
many months of experiences.
~~~~~
One meandering route to heavenly love is called
"deep creativity"
~~~~~
I always plan a route so as to visit Kuruman. It is almost
next to the Kalahari. There is a fountain, claimed to be the
largest in the Southern Hemisphere. Sitting there, seeing
crystal clear water flowing through a pool, let thoughts
meander likewise. Gigantic fishes take with grace whatever
is offered because clear water nourishes too.
Some 500 km further to the west is Pella in Bushmanland.
In mid summer temperatures above 55 C are not uncommon.
The difference with the body's own temperature forces the
unexperienced mind into numbness. Memories of ordered
city life begin to collapse. What will be next? Can other
deserts be worse? Is it not time to turn back before it is
too late?
~~~~~
All changes happen as a result of flux-force pairs
producing new entropy. This leads to more chaos.
~~~~~
No matter what route I take, I have to enter Namibia through
a few border posts to make it legal. In the old days when
Nambia was still under jurisdiction of South Africa, the border
was fully open. I used to enter Namibia from a point different
to the previous ones just for the fun of it.
Now long queues of vehicles may build up at the main border
posts. Border officials claim they do only their job. Travellers
claim that enough chaos is enough. Patience is skin deep.
It is said the picture of the president in every office to maintains
this patience.
How do Nambians with their little resources control thousands
of kilometer of border going through deserts like the Kalahari,
Bushmanland, Namaqualand and the Richtersveld? Through
the theatrical shows performed by the border post officials.
Fear us and you will fear the unknown even more! Need more
fear? In the case of whatever mishap in Namibia, an illegal
entry will make me guilty whatever my innocence otherwise.
~~~~~
At the edge of chaos are bifurcations. People want
control over them because they result into a lower
or a higher order. Let enemies have the former and
friends the latter.
~~~~~
Entering Namibia at Ariamsvlei from Upington and then
heading towards Keetmanshoop affords a dull road. This is
the national road travelled by the far majority. The dullest
places give road engineers the least of problems and thus
the greatest profits. They connect these dull places by a
thing called the national road.
No better cause for accidents than traveling with constant
speed through a dull place. The tourist does not expect
even the slightest that nothing can go on for so many
hours. Little change in diversity. Nothing exceptional to
make eye contact with. Fences closing the road in all
the way. The flesh can take it, but the spirit succumbs.
Another fatal accident.
~~~~~
Ordinate bifurcations result in destructive
immergences when one or more of the seven
essentialities are impaired.
~~~~~
Any other road than the standard national road between
Upington and Keetmanshoop is a winner. Take for example
the dirt road after having visited the Augrabies Falls. Follow
curiosity. Sleep in the moon landscape at Onseepkans.
Follow happiness. Turn off to the west at Warmbad for the
Fish River Canyons some 100km further. Follow peace.
Otherwise, travel east of the Great Karas mountains. Follow
dirt roads meandering along the foothills which restrict the
Kalahari desert to the east. Whatever dirt road to be taken,
wonder upon wonder will unfold itself.
~~~~~
When bifucations result into constructive emergences,
content becomes form together with spiritual adjoints.
~~~~~
The last stretch to Namgorab is either via Maltahohe or
Helmeringhausen. It is dirt roads all the way, made on a
shale substrate. When wheels erode this shale, it results
into super fine dust which penetrates anything. No greater
chaos is possible than when you have to overtake another
vehicle travelling on this road. A minute or more of total
chaos ensues. Never try to overtake that vehicle unless you
have scanned far into the road in front so as to form a mental
picture of it. You will need it in this chaos like a practice
needs a theory.
Enter Namgorab from the northern side. But take care to
turn off where the road forks with a sign pointing to Solitare.
Do not take that road because its solitary pleasures are
for some other time. Or enter Namgorab from the south by
passing the Duwisib Castle. It was built in the previous
century by a German wanting to give his bride a marriage
present -- a care-free life where care is actually the key to
preservation. He had to transport the building materials by
ox-wagon from the port Luderitz, covering more than 100 km
through the very Namib desert itself. Sadly, the greatest
ordeal came when he lost his life in an unexpected war.
~~~~~
Producing entropy lets creative acts develop in a
chain of emergent acts like learning and believing.
~~~~~
Namgorab may also be entered along the side through the
Zaris Pass. Take care because it is easy to get lost on
this road because of its many turn offs. Furthermore, since
it is least travelled, it is also the least maintained. For the
connoisseur of succulent plants or interesting landscapes,
this is the best road to take despite its many perils.
Be prepared for what is most unexpected. In the short
distance of a few kilometers a complete transformation
happens. The Namgorab opens up right in front of you,
giving you a glimps over time from antiquity to eternity.
You have arrived at yet another heaven.
Namgorab is the eastern part of the Namib desert. It is
against the law to enter the rest of the Namib up to the
Atlantic ocean. The Germans who owned this country as
colony used to call it the Sperrgebiet. Diamonds scattered
on the surface can be seen best in the light of full moon.
Protect the monopoly on diamonds. In this light skeletons
are eeriest too. There is no monopoly on them.
If you want to get an idea of the Namib itself, travel on the
road from Aus (German for "outside") to Luderitz (the
surname of a German naval officer I think) . You are not
allowed to leave the road or even stop along it. If you are
lucky, you will see wild horses. They are the descendents
of what once had been German military horses. Yet they
cannot be compared to the majestic oryxes.
~~~~~
The last emergent act is that of one-to-many
loving leading to unconditional love. It signifies
the highest order.
~~~~~
##############
So, what is heaven after all?
Did this lengthy articulation on how to proceed to a heaven
not become boring to many? Who cares about a road from
Pretoria to Namgorab when the job is to know about LOs.
Who cares to waste money and time on such junk. Who
cares about the the whole journey when we have to make
a living at some place along the road? Who cares to study
this travelling guide more closely?
Anyway, who wants to go to Namgorab? If somebody is
infatuated by a place, why should we want to visit that
place or even want to live there? Are our castles which we
made carefree like Duwisib through our toils not much
better places to live in?
My own nightmares are seldom. But before every trip to
a desert I dream them. Many mishaps occur along the
complex road. My preparations become so extensive
that no time is left for the journey. I get stuck at a place
through mechanical failure. I take the wrong turn off,
making such a wide detour that the rest of the journey
has to be called off. I have to turn back because my
companions find the journey intollerable. Along the road
some law officer jails me for some insignificant reason
and then throws the keys away. Some farmer happens
to have listened to the radio, hearing an urgent call for me
in connection with death to rush back to Pretoria. Or
I forget what my final destination is.
We are beginning to have nightmares by not reaching
heaven where love prevails forever. We feel how we lose
our grib on life as humans, unlashing the animal within
us. We hate people for reminding us what humaneness
is about.
Let me attempt another description at what is a heaven.
I will now cut out the evolution towards this heaven. I will
now also use colours to mark the difference. Should you
forget that we cannot arrive at the destination without a
journey, breaking the silence will not help.
##############
A SHORTER VERSION
Orange sand dunes, slowly shifting. The black trunk and
branches of a camel thorn tree etched against them. A
cyan blue sky joining the mauve mountains at the horizon.
A silver aurora to the blistering sun. A reddish, cool skin
in the hot breeze. An ashen orynx calculating every movement
like a chief of operations. Black, deadly rapiers on its head
are ready for use. A flock of red headed, green parrots (love
birds) swarming on yellow, wild cucumbers to feed. White,
upright tufts of Bushman grass trying to cover the baldness
of the sand. Here or there a leaf or two showing the metallic
green luster which they once had. On the dark brown rocks
at the foot of the Numib mountain a grey-green hulk -- Adenia
pechuellii, the highest succulent version of the passion
flower family.
~~~~~
The knowledge from entropy production to
unconditional love forms a rich picture which
we have to create endlessly. Love itself
forms the colourful focus point on that picture.
Yet the power of this knowledge is not in
articulating it, but doing it spontaneously
because of our very passions since birth.
~~~~~
##############
Are you beginning to hear what the silence is saying?
Can this silence be broken? People who work together
find it difficult to speak together on things different to
the work they are doing together. When they do talk
effortlessly, it is when they focus on the work which
they are doing together. When they want to talk on
other things, even though these things may be connected
to their work, they have to stop working because they
have shifted their focus. This is why the LO-dialogue
has no practice. This is why "far-know" is important in
the LO-dialogue.
But people who are working together can communicate
on things different to the work they are doing together.
They do it by singing together about things seemingly
unconnected to their common work. It is the musical
qualities of these songs like rhythm, harmony and
passion which make this double focussing possible
-- the work and its context, the content and its form.
Folk music, pop music or a chorus from an opera, it
does not matter so long as we all learn how to sing
passionately together.
Silence has great music to it. Once we learn to
participate in this music, we are close to heaven
rather than it being a place closed to us. Who can
find time to judge with singularity when singing
together?
When does silence speak? When we reckognise in
its anaudible whispering knowledge crowned with
wisdom. When we understand each other after each
dialogue has run its full course, culminating in a
song which we can sing together. When loving makes
speaking superficial and singing substantial.
Heaven is not closed and thus silent. It is when we
close ourselves that we become ignorant to the
message in silence. Not all the words of the world
on even a difficult topic as entropy production will
destroy this ignorance. Only love can bridge this
dumb silence of ignorance amidst all the noise
which otherwise reflects ignorance. Of all species
on this globe, it is our calling to sing this message.
If whatever theory cannot become this practice,
does it deserve the free energy generated by our
passion?
##############
SHORTEST VERSION.
Even the following words are too much to speak.
So let us rather learn how to sing them endlessly
in our LOs.
~~~~~
Love fellow humans, the rest of Creation
and God Creator through whatever
creative arrow of time.
~~~~~
##############
Let us respect the silence in the LO-dialogue by
singing together when we emerge from this silence.
Best wishes
--At de Lange <amdelange@gold.up.ac.za> Snailmail: A M de Lange Gold Fields Computer Centre Faculty of Science - University of Pretoria Pretoria 0001 - Rep of South Africa
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