Werner's work,
like that fish walking up on land for the first time, has landed for me
in two distinct iterations.
Congruently,
I've experienced two major
breakthroughs
in this conversation I've been in with him for twenty eight years.
The first is distinguishing
context.
"Context"
is my answer to the question "What am I?".
The second is distinguishing
language.
"Language
(ie my speaking)" is my answer to the question
"Who am I?".
Getting the answer to a powerful question, isn't necessarily a good
idea if the answer is definitive and final. Why stop at
one answer? A question is really powerful if
it generates lots and lots and LOTS of answers. Having
said that, for the purposes of this conversation
"Context"
as the answer to the question "What am I?", and
"Language"
as the answer to the question
"Who am I?",
are
good enough for jazz.
The very sense of the abstract noun
transformation
(replete with its embodiment of the root verb
transform)
implies a shift of something, a shift of
state if you will. I assert that when human beings are
transformed
(that is to say, when human beings
transform
their lives), the shift of state is twofold:
first, what we know our Self to be;
and then (the difference is subtle)
second, who we know our Self to be.
My first
breakthrough
(the first iteration of
Werner's work)
is the essentialbreakthrough
which makes all other
breakthroughs
possible. It comes in response to the question "What are
you?". An untransformed person may say "I'm a Homo Sapiens.". A
transformed
person may say "I'm the
context
for the events in my life.".
Prior to
transformation,
the difference between what we are and
who we are,
is blurred. It's also likely that prior to
transformation,
the distinction distinction isn't distinguished yet, and
it's more than likely that's not yet known either. Prior
to
transformation,
we know ourselves as our names, as what we do for a living, as our
nationality ie in the colloquial sense, as our
identity.
After
transformation,
we know ourselves as the
context
(or, as
Werner
originally articulated, the space) in which the events of
our lives occur. In other
words,
when we
transform
our lives, our sense of what we are shifts from a
content of our lives, to the
context
for our lives.
My second
breakthrough
(the second iteration of
Werner's work)
was
creatingwho I am
as
language
ie living as
my wordcoming from being what I
am as
context
or, from a slightly different cut, as possibility. In answer to the
question
"Who are you?",
an untransformed person may say "I'm (firstname) (lastname).". A
transformed
person may say "I'm the possibility of communication, transformation,
and freedom" - or whomever they discover themselves to be.
It doesn't end there. If
who we are
is
language,
then by declaring "I'm the possibility of communication", we
create
an opening for communication. Conversely, without the declaration "I'm
the possibility of communication", there's no possibility of
communication ... if who we are is
language.
When
Werner
first brought forth
context,
like that fish walking up on land for the first time, it was a
breakthrough
of epic, evolutionary proportions for living and for Life itself,
especially when along with that fish walking up on land for the first
time, came
elephants
and eagles like a possibility.
Then something even more astonishing happened, something infinitely
more awesome: that walking fish started speaking. Since then,
anything's become possible.
