Conversations For Transformation: Essays Inspired By The Ideas Of Werner Erhard

Conversations For Transformation

Essays By Laurence Platt

Inspired By The Ideas Of Werner Erhard

And More

Creating Creating

Diamond Mountain Appellation, Napa Valley, California, USA

September 24, 2010


This essay, Creating Creating, is the first in the fourth trilogy Questions For A Friend:
  1. Creating Creating
  2. Tell Me Something About Nothing
  3. Lucid Disclosures
in that order. 		The first trilogy Questions For A Friend is:
  1. Prelude
  2. Ask Me Anything
  3. Coming Around Again
in that order.
The second trilogy Questions For A Friend is:
  1. Familiar Unfamiliar Territory
  2. Interview
  3. Straight Talk
in that order. 		The third trilogy Questions For A Friend is:
  1. Dancing With My Mouth
  2. Cave Paintings
  3. Velvet Tsunami
in that order.
The fifth trilogy Questions For A Friend is:
  1. Closer And Closer
  2. Tête À Tête
  3. Dancing With Life
in that order. 		The sixth trilogy Questions For A Friend is:
  1. What Would I Ask You If I Could Ask You Anything?
  2. Wonderings About Nothing In Particular
  3. Tipping Point
in that order.
The seventh trilogy Questions For A Friend is:
  1. Beyond Breathing Underwater
  2. Bold Faced Truth
  3. What You Create For Yourself About Me
in that order. 		The eighth trilogy Questions For A Friend is:
  1. Once In A Lifetime
  2. Fireside Chat
  3. Whole And Complete
in that order.
The ninth trilogy Questions For A Friend is:
  1. Questions For A Friend
  2. Nothing Else I'd Rather Be Doing
  3. Free To Be And Free To Act
in that order. 		The tenth trilogy Questions For A Friend is:
  1. Attracted To Dance
  2. I Told A Friend I Love You
  3. Terse Transformed Communication
in that order.
The eleventh trilogy Questions For A Friend is:
  1. A Context Worth Playing In
  2. Tie The Brush To My Hand
  3. Unimaginably Terse
in that order. 		The twelfth trilogy Questions For A Friend is:
  1. What Will I Do When You Die?
  2. Access
  3. The Newest Piece Of Work
in that order.
The thirteenth trilogy Questions For A Friend is:
  1. Worthy Of The Company
  2. Creating Them For Myself
  3. Standing With Masters
in that order. 		The fourteenth trilogy Questions For A Friend is:
  1. This Context Of Privilege
  2. I'm Not Going To Let It Go
  3. Questions For A Friend XIV III: Not Yet Titled (working title)
in that order.

This essay, Creating Creating, is the seventh in a group of sixteen on Creating:

What would I ask you if I could ask you anything?  What if I had the opportunity to ask you any ten questions  I want to ask you?

I invented the possibility of being communication with you  (notice I didn't say being in  communication with you). I invented the possibility of being communication with you and asking you any ten questions I want to ask you. I invented the possibility of you answering none, one, some, or all of the ten questions I ask you. It seems pretty cut and dried. It seems like a slam dunk. Preparing for this occasion sounds like a no brainer. All there is to do is come up with ten questions. Then ask them. Then listen you answering.

If I'm to ask you only ten questions, each one should be very, very  carefully chosen. It sounds like an easy assignment, yes? There's only one thing interfering with choosing which ten questions to ask you. There's only one thing getting in the way of choosing which ten questions are worthy of this opportunity. There's only one thing getting in the way of choosing which ten questions are a fit  for this opporturnity.

What gets in the way is this: I know  what I want to ask you. I know what I want to ask you, and knowing what I want to ask you isn't the space I want to ask from.

Gee! I hope you get this ...

Everything in Life grinds  me into knowing what I know, into building on what I know, into capitalizing  on what I know. By definition, when I know what I know, I'm good  at something. When I know what I know, I'm skilled  at something. I'm skilled at driving a car. When I drive a car, I know what I know so well, I've got it down so cold  it requires no thought. I know how to surf. When I surf, I know what I know so well  it's instinctual. I work in areas where I know what I know. I get paid  to work in areas where I know what I know. I do business in areas where I know what I know. Knowing what I know, and knowing it well  is the widely accepted pathway to success.

"Except"  ... and here's the exception:

... except  as I always find out (that is, as I always re-find out) around about NOW, whatever I know about how to be communication with you gets in the way of being communication with you. Just when I think I've gotten good  at being communication with you, just when I think I know how  to be communication with you, I realize (like running into a brick wall)  I can't use what I'm good at, to be communication with you. I realize I can't use what I already know, to be communication with you.

It's got to be deeper, it's got to be more fundamental, it's got to be more authentic  than that. If there's not a created  appropriate context  in which to be communication with you, it's just business as usual. So first I have to create an appropriate context  in which to be communication with you. But even before I create an appropriate context  in which to be communication with you, I have to create creating. How can I create  an appropriate context in which to be communication with you if I don't first create creating?

This is what's required to be communication with you: taking responsibility for creating all of it. If I step up  and create a context in which to be communication with you, it's a start but it's not enough. What's required is to first create creating. What's required is to first take responsibility  for creating creating, then after creating creating, creating a context in which to be communication with you. Nothing less will do. Nothing less works.

I lose sight of this then rediscover it every time around about NOW. It's profundity is sublime. It's a privilege, plain and simple, to step up to this calling. By saying it's a privilege to step up to this calling, I'm not saying it's my  privilege to step up to this calling, like it belongs to me  and to no one else, like it's somehow mine. There's nothing personal whatsoever  in this. It's a privilege when anyone  sees this opportunity. It's a privilege when anyone  sees what's at stake. It's a privilege when anyone  seizes this opportunity, and steps up.

Now that an appropriate context to be communication with you is created, now that creating  is created, now that privilege to step up to this calling is created, now that it's established the privilege to step up to this calling isn't personal, preparing for Questions For A Friend IV can begin in earnest.


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