Being done hot topic workshop write up

The “fishbowl” hot topics event yesterday on Saturday afternoon was a very interesting use of the technique, with many points being made about how much “doing or being” we should be involved with, as we progress our Transition Initiatives.

There were comments about:

·       we need to do more “doing” as the climate change problem is serious and we don’t have the time to wait around just “being”

·       it can become very frustrating watching people just “being” when future generations depend on us to do something now and not wait around

·       the challenge of “doing” too much can become habit forming and the adrenalin produced by the constant activity creates a rush, which can become a drug. This has other consequences apart from the potential health consequences

·       the very action of “doing” faster and faster is part of the continuous global desire of being “on” all the time, which big business promotes so that we need to be “doing” all the time whatever we are involved with

·       different people have different ways of behaving in that some are reactive and some are proactive, which is another way of explaining “doing” and “being”

·       we should think about “doing” and “being” as being linked actions, with the “being” as the reflective part of the “doing” process to see if we are on the right track

·       one of the comments from Nick Osborne was that we should not forget the importance of the spiritual “being” that creates the energy and passion for the whole Transition subject

·       there is a real dichotomy in that we need to go slower and slower if our globe is not to heat up too much and yet to achieve this, is in a short period of time, we need to go very quickly.

Later that evening I had a light-bulb moment in that we need to think about the three positions as a triangle with the spiritual “being” located at the top of the triangle and then “doing” and “reflective “being” placed along the bottom. This visual picture allows people to understand a number of things:

·       everybody has their own size of triangle with a wider or narrower base

·       the more we move towards one specific point, the more we get away from the other two points and the more we upset the delicate balance of our internal energy and heath

·       we should attempt to balance our lives with all that we do, in the middle of the triangle so that we don’t become too focused to the exclusion of other parts of our lives

·       during our journey of life we tend to develop a larger and often taller triangle the more we understand the importance of the both the reflective and spiritual “being”

·       the triangle can work for groups as well as individuals

Onwards and upwards.

From William Baron, Transition Derby