Intentional Society: The ocean and the elephant
Newcomers may register here for our next orientation video call on Saturday, August 5th at 1:00-1:55pm Pacific Time (4pm Eastern, 8pm UTC).
First, crew news: Our crew formation process has launched three solid-looking crews this season — a contrast from last season launching approximately seven crews optimistically that turned quickly into four. One prior-week contender didn't form, and one new/last-minute proposal did. The butterfly effect (of northern hemisphere summer?) was present with potentially different outcomes based on who was there each week. Perhaps some one-off events could happen in a few areas where crews weren't the right fit? Anyway, our Season 11 crews will be continuing our Circling practice, sharing creative work with each other, and the aforementioned Un-fragmenting (across inter-personal difference) exploration.
Then in a more philosophical direction: Today I feel small. (And I accept that; I don't have much valence judgement on it.) Less firm, coherent, or impactful, and more like a swimmer on top of the vastness of the ocean. The swimmer self represents my agency, impact, power relative to the ocean of internal, interpersonal, and societal grooves of unseen subterranean pattern flows. I summon this picture to point at my current felt experience of the size of the unconsciousness we're floating above. Haidt (2006) used the now-common "elephant and the rider" metaphor but... the elephant seems ocean-sized? Or rather, the elephant itself is swimming in an ocean when it's not just our own individual unconscious self but when we zoom out to see the relational and society unconscious as well.
That reminds me to scale the swimmer too: the swimmer is smallest when visualized all alone. Together maybe we build boats or even floating cities or whatever. Sprouting feathers and flying? Cloud cities above water world? 🤷🏻♂️ I don't know how to extend the metaphor. Tonight, for me, I contemplate the depth, and breadth, and span of the ocean, the mighty Pacific of volume incomprehensible. Swim the ocean, dance with the universe — solidity is an illusion, a construct to see through at least once in a while.
Swim on,
James