Hosting Conversations about Questions that Matter
Yesterday we had a Myth and Legends Café with 36 Masters students in the Sustainable Resource Management program at the Tech University Munich.
Our question: What wisdom is there in the myths and legends of the first peoples that could help us better understand our sustainability challenges?” We started with brief presentations of these myths and legends from Chile, Columbia, China (two stories), Lebanon, Australia, Bulgaria and the US. They were really inspiring.
Then I challenged them to build upon these myths and legends and try to articulate some myths for today that could help us through the next 100 million years. They worked in teams, exchanged tables, shared stories and returned to their teams to write up their beginning stories. It was really exciting and added another important dimension to their program.
I used the "Dream Catcher" idea to capture the essential elements in past myths so they could co-create new myths that could help us make it for the next 100 million years. If anyone is interest in more, please let me know.
Amazing what can be done with TWC!
Tags: Co-Creativity, Legends, Myth, Wisdom, and
Replies to This Conversation
-
Permalink Reply by juanita brown on -
Oh Charles....this story is so beautiful. Thank you for continuing to innovate and create new opportunities for people to think together about the critical issues of our time.
With love and respect,
Juanita
-
Permalink Reply by Charles M. Savage on -
That's a true complement from a "living legend!"
Thanks,
Charles
-
Permalink Reply by juanita brown on
-
ha, ha, ha....does that mean I'm becoming an Elderella?
Hugs,
Juanita
-
Permalink Reply by Charles M. Savage on
-
Juanita,
If we see TIME through the lens of SPACE, than we feel there is a physical distance between the PAST and PRESENT. If we take TIME out from behind the shadow of SPACE, and see it in its own terms, the separation disappears, and the PAST, PRESENT and FUTURE overlap in a VENN, revealing new insights at their intersection. If we think of a legend as something stuck in the past, we disconnect ourselves from its nurturing qualities and we dry up in the PRESENT. Moreover, the physical separation denies us the wisdom need to co-create a wiser FUTURE.
When we discover “VENNergizingTIME” we may find a new inner energy. Your work over the years has been to create the space where people can connect with their inner sense of TIME to find the energy not only for discussing questions that matter, but also finding the insights that nurture and inspire. So please take my thought as a statement of appreciation for what you’ve done for us all.
Thanks,
Charles
-
Permalink Reply by juanita brown on
-
Wow Charles....what a beautiful and transformative reflection. I feel truly honored and blessed by this interpretation (as I did in your original post, by the way). I now understand a lot better the context for this idea of "living legend!"
Thank you for all you've contributed as well, dear friend...
Juanita
-
Permalink Reply by Charles M. Savage on
-
Juanita, you are always so generous and open. Perhaps it is time to bring the dynamics of VENNergizingTIME back into our TWC sessions? Should we?
Charles
-
Permalink Reply by Benjamin Aaron Degenhart on -
that sounds amazing Charles! i'd be very interested in taking a peek into the harvest if i may?
-
Permalink Reply by Charles M. Savage on
-
Benjamin,
I'm attaching the challenge to the group, a wonderful set of elements from the Australian Aborigines and the one page Dream Catcher designed to inspire them to start to write their own myths - and they really stepped into this process. It will take a little time to review and summarize the process, but it's clear to me we need to bring the PAST into the PRESENT as an inspiration for not just wait for and adjusting to what comes to us, but instead actively co-creating a wiser FUTURE. Certainly this is what, as you know, many First Nations actively did.
What is your interest in this topic? I'd be glad to learn from your experiences.
Charles
- Attachments:
-
Permalink Reply by Ria Baeck on -
I stand with you Charles! Bringing the best of the past - not only from myths and tales, but also from buildings, the land etc. - into the present, if only to use the wisdom that is there, and not use it. Also to see the longer timeline, into the future. Always, always interested in good harvest documents...
-
Permalink Reply by Charles M. Savage on
-
Ria,
You are so right. Why is it we ignore this wisdom and just celebrate our stupidity? Keep up the good work!
-
Permalink Reply by Vincent-Louis Cornelius on -
I really like the approach you have taken here Charles. As someone who uses both World Cafe and storytelling in my practice, it has not occurred to me to connect the two as you have here. You have given me a lot of inspiration to experiment with this combination, thank you for sharing it with us.
With my best wishes
Vincent
-
Permalink Reply by juanita brown on
-
Hi Vincent...I'd love to learn more about your work with story (and if you combine that with World Cafe??)...can you share a bit about your interests and experience as I share those as well!
Warmly,
Juanita
Photos
Contribute!
© 2013 Created by Amy Lenzo.
