tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5468631352102294695.comments2024-01-18T01:02:10.807-08:00Story colored glassesCynthia Kurtzhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16185088323080774635noreply@blogger.comBlogger302125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5468631352102294695.post-37836066905509280672024-01-16T10:43:39.826-08:002024-01-16T10:43:39.826-08:00Thanks, person, for your good wishes. Story work i...Thanks, person, for your good wishes. Story work is useful in every domain that involves people! But I like ecology a lot. ;)Cynthia Kurtzhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/16185088323080774635noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5468631352102294695.post-17736231004342506412023-10-30T10:47:00.201-07:002023-10-30T10:47:00.201-07:00The significance of the old man living in an egg i...The significance of the old man living in an egg is interesting, and one i just had a dream about. Once inside the egg, all talk of there being a "time crunch" ceases. No comment is made about "what will we do when the Nothing reaches the egg?". They have all the time in the world -- literally, infinite time -- to repeat the Neverending Story.<br /><br />The egg is a barrier that even the nothing cannot violate. On the other hand, all the power of AURYN and the empress cannot open the shell from the inside, either. Only a spark of life from the human world can open it. If Bastion had set aside his quest, then I believe the old man and the empress would be in the egg for eternity, telling the story of Bastion's failure -- until someone else arrives and resolves to do better. All that exists of Fantasia still exists in this state of pure potentiality. The nothing does not truly destroy fantasy but simply wipes the slate clean into pure potential. I think it may have had a natural function that even the manipulators did not understand.Zevhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/18399730334119791759noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5468631352102294695.post-59044481842943548882023-10-16T10:22:20.563-07:002023-10-16T10:22:20.563-07:00Thanks Sherry! I appreciate the best wishes so muc...Thanks Sherry! I appreciate the best wishes so much, and I'll keep your offer in mind. Everybody, Sherry was one of the early readers of my Confluence book, and I was so grateful for her excellent advice. Cynthia Kurtzhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/16185088323080774635noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5468631352102294695.post-9192552187823866942023-10-16T09:53:19.883-07:002023-10-16T09:53:19.883-07:00Cynthia, I'm just about to try your PNI worksh...Cynthia, I'm just about to try your PNI workshop with some stories I collected... And I'm so grateful for your presence and work in my life. I will keep an eye out for a job that deserves you. Please let me know if you would like editing/reading/instructional-design feedback, and I'll sign up! Blessings to you.Sherry Johnsonhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/13743689426846136050noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5468631352102294695.post-18791358613752778792023-08-31T12:42:15.536-07:002023-08-31T12:42:15.536-07:00Thanks, person, I appreciate the support. And I ag...Thanks, person, I appreciate the support. And I agree that everyone has the capacity to be helpful to everyone else in some way. But we all have to strike a balance between helping the world and taking care of ourselves and those we love most. It's the challenge of life, isn't it, and it's nested inside a bigger challenge: to be kind to each other while we are each meeting our challenges. :)Cynthia Kurtzhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/16185088323080774635noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5468631352102294695.post-50151355470758333572023-08-31T12:14:41.169-07:002023-08-31T12:14:41.169-07:00so ... as I see it, it's the world that needs ...so ... as I see it, it's the world that needs what you most generously offer and that everything you're about is here for. <br />My own guiding image is that I'm here to make possible the world in which all 8+billion of us are in meaningful conversation, however, whenever with whoever I can. What I've learned so far is that basically everyone has that capacity, and not too far away from their everyday awareness... engaging in mutual storytelling about "what matters most" is 1 of those magic keys that open the door to the depth where really meaningful conversation and collaborative awareness is accessible. I wish those resources I have in abundance, and would be happy to pour at your door, could translate somehow into the resources you really need. I'm working on it!Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5468631352102294695.post-54347298939462337772023-07-28T11:59:16.877-07:002023-07-28T11:59:16.877-07:00Hi Chris and thanks for commenting! I am sorry tha...Hi Chris and thanks for commenting! I am sorry that I did not post your comment right away. I forgot! I have never done that before. It has been so long since I have had a comment on the blog that I think I forgot about them. <br /><br />Anyway, yes, thank you so much for the comment. I appreciate it. People keep telling me how "generous" I am in releasing so much information into the world for free. But I don't see it as generosity. I see it as the way the world ought to be. The open source model, in which information is free and bespoke attention is not, is, in my humble opinion, the way we should all be interacting. I also think this model is our best hope of solving the collective problems we face as a species. Call me a zealot, but that's where I stand.Cynthia Kurtzhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/16185088323080774635noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5468631352102294695.post-60598530330415200312023-07-12T12:41:06.507-07:002023-07-12T12:41:06.507-07:00THanks for letting this stuff out into the wild Cy...THanks for letting this stuff out into the wild Cynthia. These resources re invaluable and I really appreciated working through them in the course. It's nice to be able to share them with clients and curious folks.Chrishttps://www.blogger.com/profile/09515693806377843182noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5468631352102294695.post-78532515271701890952023-04-11T09:28:04.322-07:002023-04-11T09:28:04.322-07:00Hooray, a non-spam comment! The blogging world is ...Hooray, a non-spam comment! The blogging world is pretty quiet these days. I like it that way, but it's still nice to run into somebody once in a while. Thanks for writing, Sheila. So glad you enjoyed the conversation. I did too! Cynthia Kurtzhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/16185088323080774635noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5468631352102294695.post-72748506640916115742023-04-11T05:22:21.943-07:002023-04-11T05:22:21.943-07:00I thoroughly enjoyed your conversation with Madely...I thoroughly enjoyed your conversation with Madelyn Blair, Cynthia. I bought a hard copy of your Working with Stories book years ago but lent it to someone - I can't remember who - and never got it back. Thank you for providing the pdf free, I am now inspired to dip in again. <br /><br />Cheers,<br /><br />Sheila WeeSheila Weehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/08578937056826540232noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5468631352102294695.post-45089468346232800792023-03-15T12:34:22.753-07:002023-03-15T12:34:22.753-07:00Thanks for the comment, Zev. That is an excellent ...Thanks for the comment, Zev. That is an excellent point. Can't believe I didn't think of that after reading the book so many times. Of course, it is possible that he meant for the mirror metaphor to appear many times (reflected? as a mirror would in a mirror?) in the book. ;)<br /><br />CynthiaCynthia Kurtzhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/16185088323080774635noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5468631352102294695.post-11575912217105558882023-03-14T19:50:35.654-07:002023-03-14T19:50:35.654-07:00You wondered what Ende was talking about in this q...You wondered what Ende was talking about in this quote:<br /><br />"The title "Speigel im Spiegel" refers to several things. One is the famous Zen koan "What is a mirror which is reflected in a mirror?" Which is indeed cited even in the "Neverending Story". <br /><br />This refers to the dialogue between the Childlike Empress and the Old Man of Wandering Mountain:<br /><br />"“Are you and I and all Fantastica,” she asked, “are we all recorded in this book?” <br />He wrote, and at the same time she heard his answer: “No, you’ve got it wrong. This book is all Fantastica—and you and I.” <br />“But where is this book?” <br />And he wrote the answer: “In the book.” <br />“Then it’s all a reflection of a reflection?” she asked. <br />He wrote, and she heard him say: “What does one see in a mirror reflected in a mirror? Do you know that, Golden-eyed Commander of Wishes?”"Zevhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/18399730334119791759noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5468631352102294695.post-4406806381195042292022-06-06T10:09:50.551-07:002022-06-06T10:09:50.551-07:00Thanks, Harold, that's an excellent point.Thanks, Harold, that's an excellent point.Cynthia Kurtzhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/16185088323080774635noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5468631352102294695.post-3340556846569131272022-02-22T10:37:23.335-08:002022-02-22T10:37:23.335-08:00Thank you, person. I am guessing that this is not ...Thank you, person. I am guessing that this is not a spam comment, because the spammers don't usually know my name. It's an interesting comment either way, so I let it through. Besides, even spam can be enlightening sometimes.<br /><br />The older I get the more I think that the things people thank or blame us for having tend not to be things we chose to pursue, but things we were born with or lived through. I never set out to be vulnerable or curious; I just am those things, for better or worse (and there's a lot of worse). Our life's work, I think, is to try to get the most good and the least bad out of what we have been given, and to recognize that everyone else is doing the same thing. The second part is harder, because it doesn't <i>look</i> like everyone else is doing the same thing. It just looks like they are wrong. ;)Cynthia Kurtzhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/16185088323080774635noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5468631352102294695.post-46677531480592605722022-02-18T09:59:06.525-08:002022-02-18T09:59:06.525-08:00Sometimes I think I can't admire you any more ...Sometimes I think I can't admire you any more than I do, Cynthia. Thank you for your vulnerability and voraciously curious mind...that works quite a lot like mine.Sherry Johnsonhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/13743689426846136050noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5468631352102294695.post-71885621822715440262021-04-28T16:18:27.847-07:002021-04-28T16:18:27.847-07:00Hello [alje]daxi and thanks for the comment! I wro...Hello [alje]daxi and thanks for the comment! I wrote this blog post eleven years ago, but as it happens, I am in the throes of finishing my new book on this topic right now. So soon you will be able to read my book-length expansion of these ideas. I have had the Chinese five elements on my list of related ideas (on the CSF page of this blog) since 2010, so we are thinking alike in that sense as well. Anyway, if you want to talk about any of these ideas, go ahead and send me an email (cfkurtz@cfkurtz.com).Cynthia Kurtzhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/16185088323080774635noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5468631352102294695.post-71954254527557105782021-04-28T13:05:11.905-07:002021-04-28T13:05:11.905-07:00Hello Cynthia!
Outstanding work here. It's ta...Hello Cynthia!<br /><br />Outstanding work here. It's taken my like 5 days to read this, and i still feel like i'm missing a lot.<br /><br />What i have understood reminds me quite strongly of the <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wuxing_(Chinese_philosophy)" rel="nofollow">chinese five elements</a> (or movements): <br /><b>metal</b> moves in, & is associated with autumn, rationality, grief, adulthood;<br /><b>wood</b> moves up, & is associated with spring, spontaneity, curiosity, early childhood; <br /><b>fire</b> moves out, & is associated with summer, passion, resolve, pre-puberty;<br /><b>earth</b> moves down, & is associated with responsibility, long-term planning, and the changes between seasons.<br /><b>water</b> moves wherever it wants, & is associated with resourcefulness<br /><br />there're a few (very strong) breaks, eg, earth & water & their seasons. It seems to map onto cynefin more elegantly, with water representing disorder.<br /><br />i remember an anthropologist friend of mine talking about how groups of people used to have periods of high sociality, being very clumped together in the city in the winter, then break into smaller groups in the summer; this recapitulates the form of the medicine wheel and traditional native american social structures, and contrasts with china, which has been dominated by highly stationary year round agrarianism. the differences may be hiding there?<br /><br />---<br /><br />(when i use techne i mean it in a <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Techne#Techne_and_technik" rel="nofollow">Heideggerian</a> sense. very sorry i'm just far to brain fuzzy to think of a better word)<br /><br />---<br /><br />also, the medicine wheel speaks very clearly of cycles: <br />we have the cycle of the day, sunrise day sunset night; of the year, the seasons; and of the life, age. we can apply this to cynefin/confluence, and how work cycles, eg<br /><br />the day begins, and the lead barista dials in the espresso machine (ossifying their techne into the machine), creating clarity for the subsequent baristas;<br /><br />spring begins, and the garden is---relative to the planting of seeds---a clean slate;<br /><br />and when we connect this to Stafford Beer's recursive viable systems model, as such:<br /><br />> So you suddenly get this extraordinary image of the viable system called you, at the centre of something like a sphere. Where your organs are part of you and you are part of the family. Something else is part of you and you are part of the church and so on. And there are hundreds of them that's why I call it a sphere, I think it's a nice model. [<a href="http://opendata.ljmu.ac.uk/id/eprint/6/26/SBFCTranscript%20Session%2004Final.pdf" rel="nofollow">source, page 23</a>]<br /><br />all the little viable systems within the organization pass through their own lives, as the organisms pass through their lives, as they die and rot and the shadow passes and new life springs in spring, &c. sprints & scrums & retrospectives & all hands create nested cadences of injections of central authority through the meshwork of the various teams (or something like that?? must think more.)<br /><br />---<br /><br />Oh! and perhaps i should mention, i think of cynefin as being explicitly epistemological in intent, while you seem to be doing something much more ontological here. ie, i think of cynefin of telling me how to approach & understand a problem-space, relative to my own techne & the techne i can draw upon from my close compatriots. confluence seems to be telling me about the actual cybernetic structure of the problem-space.[alje]daxihttps://www.blogger.com/profile/05651378964485729157noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5468631352102294695.post-8439198615858506602020-03-05T09:27:09.148-08:002020-03-05T09:27:09.148-08:00The neverending story is my favorite book. I loved...The neverending story is my favorite book. I loved your essai. For gmork, i think he is the inverse of Bastien. This book have a lot of dualism like the Empress and the old Man. He can travel the worlds so I think is part human (a half) a part imagination but corrupted by the manipulator. (Sorry for my bas english and Thanks for this essai) Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5468631352102294695.post-7279473284898795872020-01-20T10:33:39.951-08:002020-01-20T10:33:39.951-08:00Deep apprciationfor this upgrade. Can't wait ...Deep apprciationfor this upgrade. Can't wait to use it in a couple of upcoming projects. Chris Corriganhttp://www.chriscorrigan.comnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5468631352102294695.post-57526016490574253222019-06-18T14:08:36.113-07:002019-06-18T14:08:36.113-07:00I've been looking for an analysis like this of...I've been looking for an analysis like this of the Neverending Story for some time. This is great, thank you. There is so much in the story to unpack. I think it would be valuable and fruitful to read it as a sacred text. What fun! I still wonder about "then she really is a ..." Blueberrysasshttps://www.blogger.com/profile/16711316552765917254noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5468631352102294695.post-78550218522632791142019-06-11T17:15:17.307-07:002019-06-11T17:15:17.307-07:00I think you’ve put too much power in the hands of ...I think you’ve put too much power in the hands of the authors: they are mere channellers of a story that already Is. They do not control the characters any more than you control your son; they document the journey, not guide it. They tune into what perspective(s) on the story they want to disclose and from that vantage point begin their telling. It’s like an event being covered by multiple news stations. <br />Susan has every chance to get to “heaven” (or whatever you’d like to call it, but it wasn’t Narnia persay, Narnia has been destroyed and this was the True Land from which it, like an idea (much like we are telling stories Here, but where they are really happening is another place), had been recreated). So they are in a place like Narnia, but the realer, fuller, more colourful, even more detailed (infinitely) Original seed from which it sprang. And Susan didn’t die in the crash because she wasn’t aligned with going there- C.S. isn’t passing judgement when he says she’s too busy focusing on this world to be interested in going to the next! It’s just a fact for now. When she decides she’s ready to join her family, she will. And then, even if it takes multiple lifetimes of tuning herself and finding out what she really wants, she’ll eventually get it. C.S. himself said, “There is plenty of time for her to mend, and perhaps she will get to Aslan’s country in the end – in her own way.” :) It’s up to her; and if you’re someone more interested in “grown-up” things, as it were, instead of the playful times embodied by Narnia and the afterlife enjoyed by the Pevensie’s, it’s no loss to you! She did lose her family, but like the dwarves in The Last Battle, she can only keep herself in the dark by ignoring the light. Anonymoushttps://www.blogger.com/profile/13193882619591035606noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5468631352102294695.post-16079255529006597292019-03-22T21:33:33.012-07:002019-03-22T21:33:33.012-07:00This was amazing! Thank you so much for writing it...This was amazing! Thank you so much for writing it. It has been a pleasure to read. I found this essay thanks to a Google search on Argax the monkey. Immediately after reading the city of lost Emperors chapter, I looked to the web hoping to hear somebody talk about that wicked monkey. I found so much more here, and I'm so pleased. I loved the dichotomy of desire and will. It's incredible how deeply it's woven into the story. Also,I loved the shout out to Stardew Valley. I wish you fantastic travels. Oh, also I loved your story about saying "that seems plausible." I sometimes struggle with memory of my life (while my memory for trivia is great). It was neat hearing your experience. Anonymoushttps://www.blogger.com/profile/13147384660987010162noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5468631352102294695.post-15097553143032836072017-06-28T10:57:28.129-07:002017-06-28T10:57:28.129-07:00Anonymous: Your comment is probably spam, but it s...Anonymous: Your comment is probably spam, but it seems less spam-like than most of the spam, so I thought I'd let it through. Wouldn't want to disrespect Porter, Texas, or bravery. Thanks for your possibly real comment!<br /><br />CynthiaCynthia Kurtzhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/16185088323080774635noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5468631352102294695.post-7036301325776318312017-06-28T00:40:55.744-07:002017-06-28T00:40:55.744-07:00Greetings! I've been following your website fo...Greetings! I've been following your website for a while now <br />and finally got the bravery to go ahead and give you a shout out from Porter Texas!<br />Just wanted to tell you keep up the excellent work!Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5468631352102294695.post-89448872646247523562017-02-07T11:01:19.537-08:002017-02-07T11:01:19.537-08:00Hello Peter and thanks so much for adding a commen...Hello Peter and thanks so much for adding a comment. Quite a few things in what you said resonate with me. "We have all been programmed to be too mental" - meaning, to me, too focused on reductionistic and even simplistic ways of looking at things (pretty little boxes). There used to be a greater ease with uncertainty and mystery in the way people lived. Of course we have reaped many benefits that we take for granted - antibiotics, technology, etc - so saying "we should live in mystery" on a computer is like saying "forests should be left standing" while living in a wooden house. ;) But maybe we can recognize what we have lost as well as what we have gained. <br /><br />I have also been exploring the connections between ancient sources of wisdom and contemporary needs. You might be interested in the project where I'm collecting frameworks of organization and self-organization similar to my confluence framework (see it under "Useful Things"). I am constantly looking for more "siblings" to add to my list of frameworks because I'm convinced that my list is incomplete. I'm not very familiar with Permaculture (aside from planting a new fruit tree or bush in my yard each year), so maybe you can suggest something from that perspective.<br /><br />I would also like to hear what you mean when you say you have "resorted to the 'quality' of things as a way of enticing people into group flow." Your comment reminds me of "Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance," which I read ages ago and really need to open up again. Anyway, curious to hear you expand on that thought.<br /><br />Cynthia<br />Cynthia Kurtzhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/16185088323080774635noreply@blogger.com