Dear OrganLearners
It has slowly dawned on me that I have been amiss in not having introduced
myself, as Elixabete has just done and I now find is the custom. I would
like to rectify the discourtesy by means of an analogy, if I may.
[Host's Note: Personal introductions are always welcome here and not at
all required. ..Rick]
We are all like water. Many of us never leave, but remain part of the
great ocean of life; each one unique, but also immersed in the teeming
mass - perhaps resting quietly in the deep or else traversing the breadth
of the earth in the great currents. Some being thrashed onto the shore in
the twisting maul and tangle of the surf.
Others have escaped the ocean, emulating that which took place so many
millions of years ago, to seek another kind of more independent existence.
Some have become burbling mountain streams - rushing hither and thither
over and around the rocky places in the exploration of a new world. Some
have became deep and quiet rivers - hardly a movement on the surface to
show what is happening down below. Early, on still damp mornings, mist
rising like smoke, mystically revealing, then concealing again, the faint
ripples that speak of the philosophies being churned below
Others are like lakes - calm, peaceful and very wise at the end of the
long journey. The destination of all the bubbling mountain brooks and the
broad placid rivers, repository of all that had been learned along the way
- from the evaporation out of the ocean, the sailing oh so majestically
white through the air with a beady eye on what is happening down below;
life bringing rain and then the varied experiences through mountain stream
and lowland river; through gorge and flatland. But not back to the ocean -
not yet. First the quiet lake filled with knowledge of a long journey - a
destination. Yet over time also a rebirth as fresh evaporation spreads the
wisdom far and wide.
These different kinds of water I have observed here at LO.
I come to this list like water in a well. Deep (in the literal sense, not
metaphorical), enclosed in the earth. It would be nice to say that it is
not by choice, but through nature. But that would be only partially
correct. We live by making choices. Mine has been to withdraw myself in
the hard earth of working alone - becoming isolated in space and in
community - having more contact with machines that have the pretense of
thinking than with men.
As has been mentioned here, I studied Physics at the same University that
At had attended. He left physics to immerse himself among people - to
fulfill his destiny, to become and be a teacher; I "went into" computers -
perhaps too literally and in too many senses isolated from people. In time
I left to work for myself and mostly by myself and have been doing so for
20 years.
A well only has itself to contemplate and its conversation is a monologue.
Yet over time a few buckets of water had been drawn up to see the light of
day; something on organisational psychology; a new way of finding sense
and direction in markets; the occasional writing on what goes on in the
financial world outside. The rest of the water remaining where it is and
was; of little consequence to anybody else really - all repetitious words
onto paper into ash and not even the computer remembers any more.
And then, one day, the serendipitous bucket that changed things in so many
respects. The bucket that contained what is my revelation, I so believe,
and perhaps my destiny. The concept that there is a purpose to management,
too; just like to all things under heaven. That bucket got hoisted 20
years ago and may still in time justify the existence of the well.
Using the theme of water is no idle fancy. I wanted to draw a parallel
with what I have experienced here in the OrganLearners' domain over the
past very few weeks. If a well could suddenly become aware of the great
wide world out there - with oceans and streams and rivers and rain; and of
course lakes - it would want to rush out over its lip and join in the
frenzy and tumult and joy of life 'as it is being thought'.
It would offer an apology that its first entry into this strange new world
- a community of shared thought and learning - was like the gushing of
gatecrasher arriving uninvited at a party. Or does a sudden leak in the
roof state it more aptly?
What the future holds I do not know. Working on one's very own is time
consuming and - with a renewed effort to turn Normative Management into a
viable entity of some worth - I fear that the newly discovered wetness of
being immersed in the world of this list may become unbearable, as it
erodes away essential time that has to be spent on the matter of survival.
And perhaps more.
But I am looking forward intensely to dipping into the streams and rivers
and, yes, the lakes, of this new world to alleviate the drought of so many
years.
For those of you who have read Ray Bradbury, his short story, "The day
it rained forever.", reminds.
With joy and a smile
Daan Joubert
Roodepoort, South Africa
PS Andrew, this explains the 'Agape' and not 'Love'. But it may come.
--Daan Joubert <daanj@kingsley.co.za>
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