Subject: Re: This is interaction!! -Reply
From: Dennis Nelson (NELSOND@ny-smtp.army.mil)
Date: Tue 25 Jan 2000 - 15:12:47 MET
Date: Tue, 25 Jan 2000 09:12:47 -0500 From: Dennis Nelson <NELSOND@ny-smtp.army.mil> Subject: Re: This is interaction!! -Reply
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All of life interacts across time and space - and probably in ways we
have yet to understand. A simple smile from one person to another in the
morning can have enormous implications throughout the day, let alone
through generations.
Interaction, like most aspects of life, is a continuum, rather than a point in
time or space. The interaction could be as huge as creation or the big
bang or an atom bomb, or as small as the flutter of a butterfly's wing,
baby's breath, or fleeting thought.
By themselves, none of these are good or bad of themselves - however
we personally view them. Even the short-term impact of an interaction
may mask it's long-term implications.
IF we we are to discuss, plan, implement, judge and then discuss,
amend, implement, judge and then .... interactions, we need a
framework. The framework should cover the continuum of time and
space.
First and foremost, does the end justify the means or must the means
conform to the desired end? Second, will our discussion be based on
love or material gain? Will life be sacrosanct or are certain individuals or
certain ages or capabilities dispensible? Given several of those
conditions, we then can come to consensus (or is a simple majority
enough?) about what our desired end-state will be. How do we define
success? For all of time, across all of space, conditions will exist as
follows: (our conditions). Now we can begain to assess what we are
doing against its outcomes and measure the distance between those
outcomes and the characteristics of our desired end-state.
Is American education a success? Do we want to keep kids out of
trouble? Give parents time to work? Socialize kids to a given culture?
Teach them not to hurt any one? Teach them to accept and not question
authority and work to make others material rich at the loss of their own
happiness? Until we agree on American education's purpose, how can
we assess its success?
This list: for me success is to have a teachable heart, to comment in love,
to refrain from judging, to maintain contacts and interaction, to grow in
my ability to role model what over generations might lead to a world
where our collective focus is our collective holistic health of which no
individual is deprived nor left behind.
So I must constantly be introspective to see what filters might prevent me
from seeing what you want to me to see; to see what triggers I might
have that might lead me to react against you rather than to assess your
thought based on its merits; what frustrations I might have to cause me
to discount who you are and therefore what you say; or what negatives
I have about life that will permit you no path to me no matter what you
say.
I believe that truths exist to guide me in that path, truths that apply across
the physical, mental, psychological and spritual realms. I believe that
whatever stimulus someone else provides, I alone am responsible for my
own response to that stimulus, and no stimulus justifies my reacting in
such a way as to hurt someone else in any way.
Thinking about, examining and reexamining all this as new topics or
combinations of topics are raised is hard work, tiring and sometimes
leads to headaches. It's a mental marathon or more which most people
do not want to run. I don't think we can afford not to run.
So whatever our topics, I think they should begin with what we would
define as the end-state that we would recognize as a success, and
does that difinition fit or contradict any prior definitions for seemingly
different situations. This is important because all of life and all aspects
of life are part of an eternal interaction: however we cut up and label the
pieces.
Faithfully,
Dennis R. Nelson
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