Hi Everyone
The conversation has arrived at a place where I find myself too.
How to live with hope and awareness against the backdrop of despair in our organisations and in the world
How to enliven the shape and substance of our conversations in journals, conferences and board rooms
How to stay engaged while not propping up what is sick or evil
When I connect with you lot and with people like you at home, it seems more bearable to stay awake and engaged. It helps me to broaden the frame and to remember too.
I’ve been thinking a lot about a quiet line that Al Gore says in ‘An Inconvenient Truth’. When asked how he coped after having the presidency snatched away from him, he says, ‘It was hard but you make the best of it.’ It’s such a funny old cliché but it seems profound to me these days.
If we are to ‘redream the world’ (Ben Okri) and ‘deserve our dream’ (Octavio Paz), it seems to me we need to do as Al Gore has done and ‘make the best of it’. Ben Okri reckons that it is more difficult to love than to die. He says we need to go on living and loving as best we can.
I have a journal where I write down ideas that feed me. My most recent entry is from Bruce Springsteen. It seems to relate to the current AACORN conversation and to my own struggles with despair and hope and my search for a voice that feels alive and essential.
Bruce Springsteen says on his 2003 DVD with the E Street Band:
‘You’re always in search of your audience. You’re always looking for them. Part of you is expressing something that you need to express but you’re also searching for something that they need.’
I send you my love and my wishes that you are finding ways in your own worlds to express what you need and an audience who is ready for you.
Thank you for the conversation and for being there.
Laura Brearley
Dr Laura Brearley
Senior Lecturer
School of Education
RMIT University
Bundoora West Campus
Tel: 613 9925 7923
Fax: 613 9925 7586
Email: [log in to unmask]
Location: 220 : 2 : 18
Postal address: PO Box 71, Bundoora, Victoria, Australia 3083
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