Suspending disagreement into the contemplative state of possibility thinking is the magic that becomes the impetus for creation.
--Me
I heard several people throughout this past week discussing whether or not they agreed with this presenter or that presenter's ideas. In my humble opinion, we place too much emphasis in our culture on consensus and become too intolerant of the outliers (from the newly shaped norms). We even are quick to do this in our research! We study the mean and do not give deep consideration to the outliers. I think the outliers are far more interesting!
One of the most important and often overlooked aspects of discourse is not agreement/consensus, but grappling with ideas, weighing oppositional strands of thought, the careful consideration of conflicted thinking, remaining open to the possibility of being wrong or only containing a piece of solution-making. Sometimes I think that the more brilliant the mind, the more accomplished the person, the more egocentric the personality, the more difficult this process may be.
This is one of the reasons I value Alan November as such a good speaker. He attempts to shake us off center, provoke thought and contemplation. Agreeing or disagreeing is not the point. Suspending disagreement into the contemplative state of possibility thinking is the magic that becomes the impetus for creation. O my god, did I just say that?! I loved that thought so much, I had to quote myself! LOL
Fluidity! It's about fluidity!! We resist fluidity while grasping for norms that can shape and inform our perspective. One person briefly touched on perspective this week. Man, I would love to take a whole course on this!
And then there's that whole thing about being addicted to form and not paying enough attention to function. But I'm just not going to get into all of that right now.
That's just what I think...for now anyway. :o)
Technorati Tags: ade2005
Leave a comment