Peter on Cultivating Collaborators

20 July
1. A prerequisite or preparation for collaboration is that we have clarified our own direction—and done so often, so we are used to clarification and to revising what we had clarified. The obvious question then is: Who or what supports that repeated self-clarification, and in what ways? Reciprocally, who or what inhibits our undertaking clarification? Can answers to these questions be brought into how we bring up the next generations(s)?

2. Self-clarification prepares us to support others' self-clarification instead of reacting for or against their views as if those views were fixed and amounted to who the person was. (Self-clarification also helps us know without too much deliberation what to bring up in a situation.) Could this perspective be the basis of a view of ethics?

21 July
1. Being generative is similar to being creative, except without any sense that creativity is something that some people have and others don’t. We are capable of not simply continuing along previous lines, of producing something that is not already there.

2. Self-care is more than being proactive. It is an antidote to being reactive to others, which gives them even more power over us and our attention that whatever it was originally that we’re reacting to. Self-care makes it more likely that we’ll be generative in a group setting.

3. When groups as a whole are not functioning well, we can take three paths: a) create a small sub-group that is supportive and opt out of the large group; b) use such a small sub-group to recharge and return to the large group, or c) stick with the messiness for the long haul. Deciding on which path requires times for reflection, reevaluation of past experiences, and self-clarification. In particular, which issues are the prizes we keep our eyes on and which can be left aside and not sweated over?