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

Making This Up As I Go Along

Auberge du Soleil, Rutherford, California, USA

July 14, 2011

This essay, Making This Up As I Go Along, is the companion piece to

in that order.

I'm making this up as I go along. I'm making it all up as I go along. Not just making up Conversations For Transformation as I go along. No, it's more than that. It's I'm making up Life as I go along.

I've discovered no formula, no recipe for doing this. There's no formula, no recipe for making up Life as I go along. There's no formula, no recipe for what I do. I've studied no textbooks and attended no schools which qualified me or certified me to write Conversations For Transformation. That's because there aren't any textbooks or schools which teach how to. The best a textbook or a school ever does is point to an experience. Said another way, the best a textbook or a school ever does is point in the direction of an experience, then leaves it up to me to make up the experience.

There are two choices in Life for me. I can choose to respond to Life. I can choose to survive Life. I can choose to manage and adapt to what Life throws at me. That's one choice. That's one position from which I can play Life. Then there's another choice I can make. There's another position from which I can play Life: I can choose to make it up as I go along.

When I assert "There are two choices in Life for me", obviously that's not true. There are infinite choices in Life. So with regard to my two choices in Life, I'll narrow it down. "There are two choices in Life for me, one of which is the only choice worth making.". That's more specific. But the trouble with saying it this way, is it speaks like an opinion for which I'm not being responsible.

<aside>

When I speak an opinion as fact without acknowledging it's my opinion, without acknowledging it's my point of view, then I'm not being responsible.

<un-aside>

I'll rephrase it. "In my opinion there are two choices in Life for me, one of which is the only choice worth making: the choice to make it up as I go along.". This works.

There's one other thing. For the purposes of this conversation, the two choices I'm speaking about, the choice to survive Life or the choice to make it up as I go along, are the fundamental choices in Life. They're baseline choices which determine from the get go, the context in which I live Life. They determine from the get go, the context in which I experience Life.

Also for the purposes of this conversation, consider all other choices are superficial. When I say all other choices are superficial, I'm not implying they're trivial or shallow or unimportant. By "superficial" I'm implying they're choices on the surface of Life. They determine what I do in Life. But they're don't determine the context in which I live Life. They don't determine how I experience Life - which is to say they don't determine who I'm being in the matter of my own life.

When I choose to make it up as I go along rather than merely survive Life, I've determined the context in which I live Life. I've determined who I'm being in the matter of my own life. That's big. But it's even more than that actually. It's much more. It's when I make it up as I go along, I have a stake in the way it turns out. When I make it up as I go along, I'm an investor in the way it turns out. I'm not simply noting how it turns out, and then adapting to however it turns out ie surviving how it turns out. Rather I'm at cause in it turning out.

If you listen being "at cause in it turning out" like manipulating a result, that ain't it. If you listen it like having it turn out to your advantage, that ain't it. If you listen it either like taking the blame for it, or like taking the kudos for it, that ain't it either. The way to listen being "at cause in it turning out" is as an experience. When I'm at cause in it turning out, which is to say when I make it up as I go along, this is an experience. To be specific, it's a place to stand, a place to come from. It's not a strategy. It's not a lifestyle. It's not a philosophy. It's an experience. And for me, choosing to make it up as I go along, in this sense, is the only choice worth making. It's the fundamental choice worth making.

Now, as to whether it's viable to live Life making it up as I go along, there's this: when I look around for evidence, for proof it's viable to make up Life as I go along rather than merely survive it, I notice God makes it all up routinely as she goes along. In fact I also notice God only makes up what is as she goes along. This is what God does. Count-on-ably.

I'm a human being. I'm just a guy. Yet I can also do both of these. As an experience, I can make up what is. And as an experience, I can make up ongoingly what is. Said another way, I can make up what is ... as I go along. Indeed, I'm making this up as I go along.

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