People with People

The word these days is crisis.  But, don't we go through crisis continuously?...in the individual level, in the group level (with our family, our friends, our neighbours), in the country level....

Probably you are thinking now: What?...crisis??...what in the hell is this guy talking about??..

I'm talking about change. I'm talking about the fact that everything around us is changing continuosly, but in such a way that we don't perceive it, so we prefer to live in the illusion that things are "static", that "they are what they are"...

It is a kind if "WYGIWYS" attitude (WYGWYS: "what you get is what you see"), but as a fact, is a very naive one.

All the cells of our body are in a continuous process of change...our consciousness is changing all time; every time we have to make a decision we are "changing" the state of the art, even if we only decide if we go to the cinema or we go to the theater...we change the world doing that, because what would have happened going to the cinema will not happen now, because we have decided to go to the theater...

Everything has consequences....so...how can find what is the right action?...how can we understand rightly the scenario?...

If we take a look to "the scenario" of our life, we could see that, mainly, is formed by other people. The continuous interaction with people determine our life.  Even is there is no one to interact with, we are determined by that (we feel bad, alone, sad, etc.....). 

So, the waving of people with people  is the main scenario in our life, in our jobs, in economics, in everything...

From other point of view, we have learned to think in an "individual" way, that is: but it is happening unconsciously, mainly based in the "individual" way of living that we have taught. No one has taught us to think in the consequences of our actions in our fellow human beings, nor on how this fellow human beings are "needed" for us to be able to think creatively and differently. 

Because of this "individual" way of thinking, we tend to create an image of reality and the rest of human beings as things separated from us, and even considering them the cause of our problems, so we react trying to change reality, trying to change the other human beings, so that they behave fulfilling and/or marching our desires, wishes, needs, and thinking patterns. 

But other human beings, that are the main "ingredient" of our lives, are not things, are not static...they are "beings"; they are "living beings", they are "sensitive and feeling beings", and even they are "consciouss and intelligent beings able to be creative", so we are failing all the time when we manage them as "things"... 

New concepts are appearing more and more about learning new ways of thinking. Edward de Bono, for instance, talks about "lateral thinking" and "parallel thinking" as ways of thinking connected with change and social reality.

I like more to talk about "asking questions" as a way of conversation. And I like to talk about changing our focus, from our goals to the process that is happening in front of our nose. And I like to talk more about changin the focus from the light that we obtain conversating to the conversation itself.

Try to focus on this for a moment: you are in front of an human being, that has a biography, with thousands of facts, details, moments in his/her life, that had impacted his/her soul in an specific and unique way, and you realize that this person, that is such a complex being in front of you, is mainly unknown to you, because of all this individual , specific and unique subjectivity. But you have now, the opportunity of contemplating this fascinating process, and even perhaps, the opportunity to collaborate together to create something new, if you learn to conversate and to think in a new "individual and social" way. 

We are people, relating with other people. We are changing continuosly. We are in a continuous crisis, and in a continuous creative process. All our life is based on that, but for some reason, no one has taught us how to do it.  Now we have the opportunity to learn to do it properly.

Every human being is a unique work of art. Our task is not to judge her/him, but to accompany her/him in her/his life path in the best possible way. 

Bernard Lievegoed.