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FutureShapers Monthly #126
Bridging Wisdom & Practice for
a Better Tomorrow
emailed
free each month from www.Renesch.com
The written work
included here is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution - NonCommercial 2.5 License
HAPPY NEW YEAR!
January 2009
In this issue:
1. Readers’ Comments
2. Newsbits
3. January Editorial: “
4.
Preview: Next Month's Editorial
5. Quote of the Month - Van Jones
6. Hot Link of the Month
7. Want to Blog?
8. Click
and Play of the Month
1. READERS’ COMMENTS
Thanks to Canadians Bruce Elkins and
Desmond
Berghofer,
. . . The killer for me is your conclusion: “New
laws about influence peddling, campaign contributions, and other reform
measures will most likely be needed.”. . . I’d love to hear even one
success story of how a “new law” has stopped influence peddling et al . . .
Until we radically reduce the honey pot that is Washington DC federal spending
and restrictive legislation, smart people will figure out how to circumvent any
law passed. Remember, when asked why he robbed banks, Willie Sutton
replied “that’s where the money is.” . . .
Thanks to
Rosa Alegria, last month’s editorial Has been translated into Portuguese and
published in the Brazilian newsletter Mercado Ético (If you have colleagues who read
Portuguese you can refer them to http://mercadoetico.terra.com.br/arquivo/hiper-capitalismo-o-que-aconteceu-com-os-mercados-livres/).
2. NEWSBITS
Welcome
New Dimensions Readers
New
Dimensions Media prominently featured a portion of my ‘conversation with the
future’ article in November in their December
newsletter which resulted in quite a surge of new subscribers finding their
way to FutureShapers Monthly. Welcome to you all! Michael and Justine
Toms – the founders of New Dimensions – have been friends and colleagues for
over thirty years doing yeoman’s work in the field of transforming human
consciousness through media, primarily radio, and have listeners all over the
world.
John’s
January Blog
This month’s blog is “Do You Think Globally? Then Check This Out!” It has to do with an
initiative I support than allows people to sign a declaration of global
citizenship and rally around others who have made their own personal
commitments to improving the world. Please check it out and post your
comments: http://globaldialoguecenter.blogs.com/johnrenesch/2009/01/think-globally-then-check-this-out.html
New Article in SpandaNews
The
fourth quarter issue of SpandsNews - just published and focusing on
consciousness and personal development - features one of my articles (“A Transformational Approach to
a Sustainable Future: Conscious Leadership,” page 50) along with articles
by Riane Eisler, Pete Russell, Ervin Laszlo, Rupert Sheldrake, Charlie
Tart, Stan Grof and other luminaries so I’m in privileged company.
3. JANUARY EDITORIAL
by John Renesch
[
I am
often asked how hopeful I am about there being any real probability of
meaningful lasting change - or even transformation - of society and its
organizations so a civil, peaceful and sustainable future can be inherited by
our descendents. It is clear than millions of attempts to bring
about large scale social change have occurred yet rarely have these efforts
produced lasting results.
Some of
us belong to small communities of kindred spirits (perhaps only three or four,
perhaps as many as twenty or thirty) where the conversations are inspiring,
empowering and conducive to exciting new possibilities for the world. But the
vast majority of people and the conversations they are having are not conducive
to social transformation. It is impossible to know how many small group
conversations – “conversations for possibility” – are going on in the world
because they are usually under the radar of collective awareness. Those of us
participating in these conversations for possibility are like isolated bubbles
with our own boundaries distinct and separate from the surrounding environment
– whether we are operating in real space/time or virtually. When we leave our
bubble and engage the surrounding environment there is often what has become
known as a “culture shock” and we will likely be startled by the
contrast.
Something
like this occurs when someone from the Midwestern U.S. visits one of the
coasts, or vice versa. It can happen when one changes jobs, moves to a
new neighborhood or a different country.
I was
recently participating in one of these conversations for possibility, where
exchanges are authentic, unguarded and visionary, when I imagined the bubbles
in an unopened bottle of carbonated beverage – champagne, soda pop, fizzy
water, beer – as a metaphor for communities such as the one I was in at the
time. I envisioned communities of consciousness as the bubbles of gas normally
incorporated into the bottled liquid. When you mildly shake the unopened
bottle, the bubbles come to life for a while. Sit the bottle down and
everything eventually returns to normal again as the effervescence is
reabsorbed.
This
seemed like a good metaphor for many failed efforts to bring about
transformations in organizations and society. The conversations for possibility
occur within the container and some agitation stirs things up a bit but
eventually things get back to normal and status quo returns!
Later in the day a first-time attendee shared with us that he was very
surprised by the openness, honesty and transparency people had been expressing.
He was a state employee and was used to a very different culture. He was
clearly very stimulated. He said he had been quite “shaken up” by his
experience of the day. Suddenly, the metaphor became complete for me.
When you vigorously shake the bottle the bubbles show up rapidly seemingly out
of nowhere. They multiply and build-up pressure inside the bottle which can
result in it “blowing its top” as anyone can appreciate who has started to open
a bottle of champagne after it has been overly stimulated. Bottles have been
known to explode with enough agitation. Once those bubbles collectively rise to
increase the pressure in the bottle and the contents escape the confines of the
bottle the status quo is gone forever! Things will never return to “normal”
again.
Regardless of whether it is a company, a country or the world, bubbles of
consciousness have a greater probability of having lasting effects when
things are really shaken up – a lot! – enough to blow the top off the existing
situation. Both the smaller communities of consciousness being released in vast
quantities and the “shaking up” of the entire system combine to make lasting
transformation occur.
______________________________
4. NEXT MONTH'S EDITORIAL: “Possibilities for a New Elevator
Speech”
5. QUOTE OF THE MONTH:
“Some of the enemies we need to
defeat are inside us. We ourselves are a part of the problem. We are trying to
change the status quo. But we are all have a stake in it too. We all rely upon
it to live and survive. And so, every day, we end up feeding the very monster
we are fighting.” – Van Jones
6. HOT LINK OF THE MONTH (see
a complete list of links at http://www.renesch.com/linksx.html):
The Wisdom Page is a compilation of
wisdom-related resources — various on-line texts concerning wisdom, references
to books about wisdom, information about organizations that promote wisdom,
wise activities, and listserv groups concerned with aspects of wisdom.
7. WANT TO BLOG?
My blog
- "Exploring the Better Future" -
is located at the
8. "CLICK & PLAY" OF THE MONTH: (also
see Audio
and Videos)
Global Dialogue
Center's Debbe Kennedy interviews John
____________________________________________
|
KEYNOTES THAT MAKE YOU THINK! John delivers "keynotes that make you
think" for corporations, associations and conferences, conventions and
corporate retreats (see www.Renesch.com) .
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********* End of FutureShapers
Monthly #126 **********
