Julie Beedon wrote:
> >Identity is a powerful issue of our time.
>
> Interesting... I have a strong sense that identity is important - the
> sense of ourselves and who we are 'precious and beloved' and yet being who
> we are has no meaning if we are not in relationship... for how would we
> truly know who we are without the complex web of relationships we have...
>
> Which make me wonder if some of the issues of our times are in the
> seperation of individual identity from relationships....
Bravo, Julie, I agree completely that we can't know ourselves without our
relationships. This strikes my as a core theme in an LO, which, perhaps,
is why Senge put at the very beginning of the 5th Disc. Fieldbook a
section on the community nature of self!
What are we without our relationships? What meaningful things can we
accomplish alone?
I think that many of our modern problems have emerged from the separation
of the individual from their relationships. . .we're more concerned with
our rights than with our responsibilities; we're more interested in what
we want, than what the community needs; and, as a result, our society is
like the proverbial bull in the china shop. . .smashing the goods without
understanding the consequences.
Our identity -- and perhaps I could throw self-esteem in there too --
should be that we know we can count of ourselves when all else fails. Once
we reach this realization, we should aspire to be reliable, not
self-reliant, and so forth.
Thanks for the inspiring message,
--Ben Compton bcompton@geocities.com
Learning-org -- An Internet Dialog on Learning Organizations For info: <rkarash@karash.com> -or- <http://world.std.com/~lo/>