"What I mean by
'being committed to
something bigger than oneself'
is
being committed
in a way that shapes one's being and actions so that those actions are
in the service of realizing something beyond one's personal concerns
for oneself - beyond a direct personal payoff."
It was nearly 23 years ago, very early on in the piece, and I had just
begunwriting
and compiling
this internet
series of essays.
When there was a good fit, I included some of what I
considered
to be great examples of
my earlier writings
from my archives. Then after I had I assembled all of them into what
later became known as this
"Conversations For Transformation"
website, I came up with the first draft of a four-line title for this
merged collection, which was:
Werner
pointed out that the first title line "The Werner Erhard Essays",
contrary to
my intention
that the essays serve to showcase him, may suggest that he not I
wrote
these essays. "Yes, that's a problem" I quickly agreed (I don't stay
stoopid
for long). So we brainstormed for a more fitting title, re-ordering and
changing and re-arranging the lines until he came up with this gem
which has remained the title ever since, the
meisterstück of which is his expansive "And More" at
the end, the reading and experiencing of which generates an opening for
possibility in a dramatic
demonstration
of the power of
languaging:
An aide arrived to let us know our scheduled time together was over. As
we wrapped up our meeting, I waggishly suggested that he being the
"king" made me the "court jester". It was an embarrassingly
terrible joke which I immediately regretted making. He
looked up from
his work
and just stared at me over the rims of his glasses. "OK OK" I said.
"How about 'Poet Laureate' then?", redeeming myself a bit.
"Much better" he said slowly, going back to
his work.
Since then
these essays
have evolved from mostly sharing my experience of transformation, or
simply from sharing anything coming from transformation,
to focusing on sharing my experience of him. The way I see this is that
the future of transformation is not in doubt, given
the technology he's laid
down
to ensure its ongoing viability. So the dearth of a future
worldwide
availability of transformation isn't something I'm concerned about.
Instead what I'd like to do (ie what I'm
committed
to do from now on) is to share my experience of him newly for those
people who engage in
the technology of
transformation
but not having met him, don't have
a personal relationship with
him,
and as a review for those fortunate enough to have
an already relationship with
him.
That's when, where, and how
Laurence,
the self-styled Poet Laureate, came out to
play.
And one of my first tasks was reworking the third title line. I tried
That particular form held
my attention
for a while. Though it was more personally focused on him (an effect
that
I intended
to create), I later reverted it to:
As he may have said, "Much better.". Transformation is
more a domain of
ideas
than personality. Primarily it's
the ideas
not the man. Secondarily
it's both.
