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




Unmessable (With)

Schellville, California, USA

June 7, 2010



This essay, Unmessable (With), is the companion piece to
  1. Two By Four Tap
  2. Slippery
in that order.

It is also the eighth entry in The Laurence Platt Dictionary: The Laurence Platt Dictionary is the companion piece to A Certain Quality Of Communication.




There's a quality I notice which speaks louder than their words (yet which vouches for  their words ie which authenticates  their words) coming from people who are powerful coaches for me distinguishing what it takes to be a stand bringing forth transformation. It's not a way they act  and neither is it a presentation appropriate role  they take on - like a doctor should have a good bedside manner  or a waitress or a sales assistant should be polite  and be helpful  or a dance instructor should be adept at the cha cha. It's not a quality of doing. It's none of that sort of thing.

It's a quality of being. It's the way they are  about Life. It's the way they are about their lives. It's the way they are as a conversation. It's the way they are with what it is they're speaking and listening in conversation exactly. While there are many perfectly good adjectives in the English language which relate to this quality (for example: clear, straight, intentional, on purpose, focused, undistracted, rigorous), There's none which totally nails it  for me in the way it's most powerfully exemplified. So I use an unorthodox expression in lieu of it.

The unorthodox expression I use in lieu of it which accurately conveys this quality for me is "unmessable". The people who are powerful coaches for me distinguishing what it takes to be a stand for transformation are unmessable. I can be  with them. I can communicate  with them. I can even co-author  and co-create  with them. But I can't mess  with them. They're unmessable. They're unmessable with.

"Unmessable" isn't mainstream English - at least not yet  ... although I notice it's slowly starting to appear, to blend unofficially  into colloquial use. Furthermore I assert in the annals of inventing and sharing transformation, possibility, and enrollment, it'll soon become de rigueur. And I for one would like to support and promote its acceptance by including it in The Laurence Platt Dictionary:

<quote>
Definition
unmessable


adjective
being a ruthless, unflinching, unswerving yet compassionate stand, particularly for transformation, possibility, and enrollment
<unquote>

If you live in a Zen monastery you're likely to be momentarily caught off guard if the master jumps out when you least expect him, and whacks you with a wooden sword. But pretty soon you'll realize it's why you're here. If you live in a Zen monastery you're here to cause a breakthrough  in being present when you're not being present. It's the master's job  to be ruthless, to be clear, to be straight, to be intentional, to be on purpose, to be focused, to be undistracted, to be rigorous, to be unmessable with  in reminding you when you're not being present. And if you make excuses for not being present when he whacks you, then with a bit of luck he'll whack you again ... that is, if he's really  a master worth training with.

When you're really being a stand for transformation, you show up rigorously and appropriately when people aren't being present. You're unmessable with. Compassionate - yes. But ambiguous, unclear, swayable, distractable, uninspired, buy-able  - no. You're unmessable.

Be unmessable with.



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