Several times over the last 15 years Jean Russell, Tracy Gary, and I have teamed with others, this time including John A Warnick and Steven Meyers, to open a space for giving to flourish. The most recent occassion was at the Advisors in Philanthropy Conference in Chicago on April 23. The convening call was, "How do our many networks intersect, connect, or fail to connect locally and nationally?" Networks present included Chartered Advisor in Philanthropy, AiP, PPP, Purposeful Planning Institute, Heritage, Legacy, ACTEC, and many others. A lively cluster of discussions ensued with energy continuing to ripple in all directions. Jean has now put together a recipe book, or guide, or gardener's handbook, on how to conduct open space. I would not have had the courage to do the convening without her.
People always ask what will be the result of open space? I see it as an end in itself, a blessed relief, a convict's walk in the prison yard, a moment in which all in the circle become ends in themselves, not means to the end of anyone else's business plan or double bottom line scheme, or master plan for saving the world some time in the future, after sacrifices of our humanity are made on a long march. That we have worth and dignity in ourselves, as members (Kant said) of the kingdom of ends, not a means to another end, is a staggeringly subversive idea, and if the result is achieved, the subversion or transcendence of Wealth Bondage (Market Based World Views, Freedom understood as Economic, The New Social Economy, Markets4Good, the sale of all that is holy, Hierarchical Structures for Moving Wealth and Power to Pinnacle, Brands as Gods, and Gods as Brands) might ensue, not as a done deal, but as one heartbeat in which we sense eternity. (Wm Blake). Not that I am anti-Wealth Bondage. My bona fides as a Dupe, Consumer, Executive, Investor, Manager, are not in question here, any more than are yours and those you love. Every check I have ever cashed, fee charged, every brand experience by which I have been bedazzled, all are from Wealth Bondage: The Alpha and Omega. Against that is the economy of love, the circuit of the gift, not on an owned plaform with power and wealth and governance in the hands of the owner, but as living seed fallen into the chinks in the pavement. The open space guide is a propagator and cultivator of that wild seed, thanks to Jean. As for the harvest, perhaps the birds will find it, and excrete the seeds where they may yet flourish, beyond the walls of this prison.
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