Check-in
Sometimes you’re the bug
Sometimes it all comes together, baby
Sometimes you are just a fool in love
Sometimes you’re the
Sometimes you’re the ball
Sometimes it all comes together
Sometimes you’re gonna lose it all.
Chorus from “The Bug” written by Mark Knopfler and made famous by Mary Chapin Carpenter
Questions:
Rate yourself as a risk taker on a scale of 1 (never
take risks if you can help it, to 5 (look for risk-taking opportunities)
The Silent Pulse, by George Leonard, p. 163
In terms of game theory, we might say the universe is so constituted as to maximize the play. The best games are not those in which all goes smoothly and steadily toward a certain conclusion, but those in which the outcomes is always in doubt. In baseball, for example, we could move second base six feet father from first and make base stealing practically impossible. Or we could move the bases six feet closer and make nearly every attempted steal successful. Either of theses changes would make things smoother and more predictable—and would spoil the game. As it is, tension is high when a player is on first base. The game is at its best. Similarly, the geometry of life is designed to keep us at the point of maximum tension between certainty and uncertainty, order and chaos. Every important call is a close one. We survive and evolve by the skin of our teeth. We really wouldn’t want it any other way.
The game
is evolution and each of us is fully involved. Through our intentionality, we
can change our bodies and the body politic in surprisingly effective and
dramatic ways. We are doing so all the
time, whether we acknowledge it or not.
At the depths of our being, we do know everything. No matter how limited our situation seems,
even in a prison cell or on our final plunge to death, we are rich in options
as to how we experience the moment. Just
by transforming the moment, to some extent we transform all of existence.
Questions:
Tell us about a time when you intentionally took a
big chance. How did you feel about it? How did it work out?
What opportunities do you have now in your life,
which would involve taking a chance on something that might be important? How
will you decide whether or not it is worth the risk?
Check-out
For about half the time we took at check-in, each of us can make a brief statement about how we feel about the meeting, and what are our hopes for future meetings
Closing Words
From George
Leonard:
Each of us possesses practically infinite amounts of unused power and knowledge…no matter how boxed in we might imagine ourselves to be, alternatives are possible.
Just by
transforming the moment, to some extent we transform all of existence.