(this is the seventh and last in a series of essays which carry the same title so that you can follow along easily if you should so choose.)
Balance. In Tai Chi Quan it is found in the Dan Tien, the center of balance. All movement occurs around it. When standing on one foot, if a leg is to go forward, something must go back to keep the Dan Tien centered above the foot, whether a single arm, both arms or the shoulders. But the Dan Tien is not just the center of mass, it is the center of energy as well. If you want to move the whole body forward, the leading foot is placed and as the weight is transferred from one foot to another, the Dan Tien moves in the direction of the leading foot, creating force. When standing on one foot, you can move in any direction in an instant. When moving from one foot to another, you have to change the direction of the energy of the Dan Tien if you want to change direction, and you will meet the resistance of the force that you yourself have created. When moving from foot to foot in any direction, to change direction, you must overcome your own resistance. How do we operate within a scheme where it is easy to change direction when we are at rest, i.e., when we are not acting, but it is difficult to change direction when we are moving, i.e., when we are engaged in a course of action?
A conversation I had decades ago with my wife, who was a ballet dancer, is perhaps useful. I was trying to understand the nature of the form that she had given her life to. There were two important elements that came out of that conversation. One is that balance in ballet is the maintaining of a state of dynamic equilibrium; that even when a dancer appears motionless in an arabesque, there is a constant flow of energy from the ground out through the extremities that keeps the "position“ alive. The other was in answer to my question of how the formal positions of ballet as taught in class relate to the performance on stage. She told me that the classical positions are the reference points the dancer moves through, and those are what gives the performance its form, while it is what happens in between those landmarks is what gives the dance its life.
The long arc in these essays has been to ask the question,"How do we operate in a universe of constant change?" Maybe it is a sense of balance as a constantly shifting self-awareness, married with a set of landmarks that we move through that provides a key to how we can work socially and politically to shape change in our society rather than be shaped by change. Maybe, like the lesson of the heron, there is a time for stillness and presence and a time for movement, for acting in accord with the moment. Perhaps mastery is the ability to do both at once.
First is to start at the beginning. We need to know that understanding our past is essential to knowing which way is forward. For myself, I feel the beginning of our current travails was when we lost sight of the difference between the superficial and the intrinsic. Race, gender, age, conservative/progressive, labor/management labels are artificial constructs that are useful only in that they loosely identify those with common interests as a means of understanding what those common interests are, and what needs and desires might be shared. They are useful when they unify us in common purpose. But when those identifications become the “means whereby” the powerful divide us and nullify the interests of the many, labels become dangerous weapons. They open us up to the strategy of using labels to split us up into smaller and weaker groups that can be defeated one by one. Whether it is done to protect the “peculiar institution”1 that the states of the confederacy fought to maintain or Scott Walker’s strategy of exempting police and firefighting unions from “right to work” legislation, labels are used to divide us and dilute our power. Labeling to sow division is enabled by holding “revealed truths” in higher regard than discovered or observable fact, for as Jonathan Swift has been updated, “We may never reason a man out of an opinion which he was never reasoned into.”2 (I am uncomfortable with any absolute, but this does express succinctly the nature of the problem.) To counter this dilemma, an important landmark might be respect for a system of knowledge rooted in the principles of scientific inquiry; that we set out to discover truth rather than to deceive, that we use sound processes to assemble the most accurate data possible upon which to make our analyses which are in turn subjected to peer review, that we understand the limitations of that data and accept the fact new discoveries may well prove us wrong.
Another landmark to guide us can be clarity of intention. I worked in factories and on the fringes of the movie industry for many years before being hired by a college to work in their school of communications. For the past twenty-five years as a member of the technical staff, I have been engaged in helping faculty and students master the technologies of film, photography and video production. I started when one of the most useful tools for a film editor was a single edge razor blade, and then later I fought the use of the "razor blade tool" in Final Cut Pro software in the new millennium. Now I am involved with the end of photo-chemical imaging and the introduction of petabyte high-bandwidth storage servers as retirement draws near. I have had a front row seat to the digital revolution, watching the ever increasing complexity of process being applied to the oldest of human traditions, that of storytelling. The one constant throughout has been that the odds for a successful outcome are directly tied to the clarity of intention. All work in communications fields are by definition social acts and the vast majority are extremely collaborative. Without clear intention, contributors to collaborative processes face difficulty determining what is needed and how their efforts are to fit into the greater whole.
Landmarks are useful things as we move in an ever-changing present. Of equal importance is our sense of our "center," so we can keep our balance when "standing on one foot;" that moment when we are deciding whether and whither to move, and so we can move efficiently without self-generated resistance when we do act; when we have decided upon a direction to go. If we are to move efficiently and with purpose, if we are to position ourselves well, and act in accordance with the moment, we must know what and where our center is within our being. A possible model for one's center would incorporate a sense of dynamic equilibrium if it is to help us navigate a constantly shifting landscape. It should also reflect an on-going growth in knowledge and experience. Perhaps it is not a thing, but a process. Perhaps it is both. Perhaps it is simply our way of being in the world.
As systems become increasingly complex, collaboration becomes essential. I remember a conversation twenty years ago with the designer of the first successful digital film editing software, Avid Film Composer. The designer told me that scores of people were responsible for the code, that no one person knew more than a small percentage of the total, and though he had designed the overall architecture of the application, he himself did not know all that it could do. That early version of the application is but a quaint rememberance compared to the current offerings from that company. And so it is that we must rely on the words and work of others anytime we are working in a digital environment, for these tools and systems are too large and to complex for any one person to master in their entirety. Whether we realize it or not, all work within the world of digital technology is collaborative work, and to be effective, we must work from an ethical core. Our intention must be transparent to all. We must "own" our own work, as we rely on others to "own" theirs. We have to own our mistakes and shortcomings so that others whose strengths offset our weaknesses can make effective contributions. We must honor their work and experiences if we are to incorporate them with confidence into our own work and improve our chances of fulfilling our intention. This is easier when we look beyond superficial surface distinctions and recognize the intrinsic qualities each person brings to the endeavor. From this center, this way of being, we can move forward, guided by and passing through the landmarks we have set. Everything can flow from this center. Respect comes naturally, listening is as breathing. Disagreement is no longer cause for anger, but a challenge to understanding. (...and understanding does not mean to fall into agreement, but to come to know which path leads most directly to the greater goal.)
With all of the heat in what I have read and heard in the past six months, I've used one standard for listening. I simply ask the question, "What must be the author's 'way of being' in order for them to say what they did in the manner they did?" The answer is crucial in determining my response. If their "way of being" calls into question the integrity of their process or the true nature of their intent, I understand that there is little that I can take from them with confidence. It is the act of asking that question, coupled with the examination of my own way of being in this world and the importance of the landmarks that are meaningful to me that brings me to the end of "the long arc" in this series that was born of the events of November 9. And now at long last, I know what I need to do, what part I must play in the hopes our country can resume a path towards a more perfect union and a more just society. It is time for me to move off of one foot.
I hope you join me next for my retirement plans... entitled: "Returning to the Fight" ...because I will need your help.
--words by Marvin Gaye, from the song, "What's Happening Brother?"
1“peculiar institution” was the euphemism of choice in the states of the confederacy when discussing their practice of slavery
2The original reads, “Reasoning will never make a Man correct an ill Opinion, which by Reasoning he never acquired”
The previous postings in this series are, in order:
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