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Always Beginning When I reflect on the contribution that Lifespring has been and continues to be, I am very thankful for the opportunity people have created for our work. While we can have a sense of accomplishment and even accept acknowledgment for what has been produced, I continue to stand in the questions: "What is available? What are the possibilities? What is next for people?" I am in no way criticizing Lifespring's contribution when I tell you that I am also constantly engaged in this other, perhaps more powerful conversation and am living with these questions. I am always looking for a new beginning, an opening for myself and other people. For the past year I have been studying, from
the perspective of personal effectiveness, the works of various
twentieth century philosophers, most notably Martin Heidegger, John
Searle, and Hubert Dreyfus. At its heart, their work deals with
the nature of language and conversations in relation to the phenomenon
of the human being. They make some exciting observations that I
find directly relevant to Lifespring. To begin with, they assert that the essential
distinction between human beings and all other animals is language.
Not that other animals don't signal one another, but that they do
not live in language. They do not make promises or requests or invent
new possibilities for themselves and others. Human communication-both
verbal and nonverbal-is not only generated in language, but the
way in which we see the world (our structure of interpretation)
is inescapably bound within language. ". . . what we know
is not reality, but simply knowledge and the knowledge we have is
the product of language which attempts to impose a system on the
flux of becoming. What we know is not things-in-themselves, but
signifiers . . ." Bryan S. Turner Our concerns, interests, projects,
relationships, commitments, and even curiosities exist only in conversations
with ourselves and others. Human beings are more than merely
animate objects or "things;" we are events. If you are like me, this may
at first seem like a radical proposition. The more we look at it,
however, the more sense it makes. When we accept language as a postulate
in the formula defining human beings, then it is easier to grasp
the assertion that human beings are processes: fluid systems of
conversations with ourselves and others. Even our history exists in language
and conversations. How the world is, how we were raised, and how
our lives are now (i.e., our culture, traditions, heritage, institutions,
religion, etc.) are all products of language, conversation, and
agreement. |
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