The boys get together now and then to catch up. In all fairness to
them, so do you and I. But that's where the similarity ends.
When you and I speak it's unlike any other conversation I know. Please
don't misunderstand this. I'd have the same conversations I have with
you with anyone and everyone in a heartbeat. But whereas you
head full tilt, unbridled, no holds barred into these
Conversations For Transformation,
others hold back. It seems to me they've settled - settled
for something not quite satisfying, not quite fulfilling, but
nonetheless the best they've got, so beyond that they're
reluctant to budge.
A conversation with you always has me a bit on edge. And it's not
because when I'm with you I'm uncomfortable. The truth is I'm more
comfortable around you than I am when I'm around anyone else I know.
It's because when I'm with you you're always in create
mode. And if I wasn't in create mode before I come in to be with you, I
get into create mode fast - there's no easing in period
for adjustment. First I'm not in create mode - then Bam! I
am. There's no in between.
A conversation with you in create mode isn't bandying topics about. It
doesn't argue the merits and demerits of opposing political parties. It
doesn't vote from a raft of options for getting society back on track -
and nor does it suppose why it got off track in the first place. It
neither recites news items nor weather forecasts nor sports results.
And it doesn't banter opinions back and forth either. Rather, a
conversation with you in create mode brings forth entirely new
topics altogether. In any conversation with you in create mode,
mere talking doesn't suffice. Flapping lips doesn't work
well around you. And as for cocktail party filling the space with
noise which passes for conversation - that for
sure ain't it either. Really!
Instead, in a conversation with you in create mode I have to bring
forth new ideas entirely newly in language. Nothing less
suffices. A conversation with you in create mode simply doesn't work at
all unless I set aside everything else and bring forth new ideas
entirely newly in language. You and I both already know my
past. There's no point in bringing it into the present. As for
projecting it into the future, that's plain not going to happen either.
All that's projected into the future in a conversation with you in
create mode are new ideas projected entirely newly in
language.
Man! I've been here with you before. I've really been here
before. I know this space well. And what I know most of all about it is
I don't know it at all.
How profound is that! How profound is it when the rest of my life
gravitates towards that which I know, towards that with which I'm
familiar, towards that which by repetition I'm good at. Yet when
you and I speak, there's only one way it's going to work, and that's
when I'm willing to risk not knowing it all - in fact, when I'm willing
to risk not knowing anything at all.
* * *
I declare I'm now ready to be in a conversation with you, and I'd like
to ask you a few questions.