Bom dia Bruno, dear LO'ers
While I am writing this contribution, snowflakes whirl past my window
freneticly searching for a rythm caused by the interference of gravitation
and irregular wind. The dynamics between pull and push, attraction and
rejection.
The rythm of day and night, summer and winter, high tide and low tide, the
waves in the sea, flapping of wings and the movements of flocks of birds,
the rythm of breath, the rythm of life. And I will not be surprised if
after the big bang explosion of the universe, there will be a time of
contraction again; the universe is breathing too.
Yes, as you and Andrew (LO23617) already said, without rythm no life. As
I said in the start this message, rythm is the dynamics between
attractions and rejections. If there was a universal black hole as unique
super attractor, everything will stick together, no rythm, no life
anymore. Keeping the world alive needs several attractors and rejectors to
keep things moving, to keep a rythm.
There could be a rythm of form and there could be a rythm of content or a
rythm of both. In all art expressions we may see fine examples of the
latter. Although I have read most of the work of Kerouac, I couldn't
directly remember the example Bruno gave. The one paragraph is obviously
the form and apparently this form accentuates the rythm of the content of
that paragraph. Other examples in literature of rythm of form and content
could be seen in the use of the famous three dots of Celine and the dots
of Machado de Assis. This Brazilian author of the end of the former
century (I should say perhaps now, the late eighteen hundred) has used
lots of marvelous methods of creating rythm in his work. There is even one
chapter (I think it was in "The postume memories of Bras Cubas") with only
dots - 'describing' a dialogue between two politicians.
In paintings we probably all know the rythm of Van Gogh who was in
constant search to explore the rythm between form and content, as could
also be found in his beautifully written letters. In the etchings and
lithographs of Maurits Escher (e.g. famous of 'impossible' figures) one
may think that there is only a rythm of form. For instance, there are
pictures with black coloured birds flying to the left and simmilar white
birds flying to the right. The black and white forms show a nice rythm.
Especially if one is looking from a distance the white birds are seen more
easily, while being close to the picture the black ones are catched be the
eye. But looking more deeper into these type of pictures, one may 'feel'
also the rythm of content. In the same way as the blue shadow of a red
object will cause rythm.
It will not surprise you that there are physical and mental attractors and
rejectors. In art, learning and communication the mental ones play the
main role. And I agree with Bruno, the art of the use of rythm could be
trained. Probably the most simple training method to develop such skill is
the use of reversals, contradictions and contrasts (e.g. the beautiful
lady with a pimple on her nose; the natural rain forest with a red
coloured industrial plant; the desert with a small pond with swimming
ducks; the son shining through a cloudy sky; you may fantasise on this
further). Also in humor one could analyse this theme. In serious matters,
I now think of the contribution of Adrew Cambell (LO23508) on the rich
contents of silence and emptyness (thank you, Andrew!).
Just some thoughts that came into my mind from the art perspective. And
since art is a special way of communication, it has all to do with this
subject.
But what about the demand of practical use and what about the relation
with LO?
If organizations will be alive, they should have a rythm. The rythm of
form is usually seen as reorganisations - former departments merge into
new ones, the structure of the organisation is changed, and so on. Why
alle these reorganisations and changes? Because the new structure is more
attractive than the old one. Or is the new form of the organisation a
result of the changing contents of it? Good managers and probably a LO as
a whole should permanently be aware of new attractors. There task as then
to make these attractors attractive for everyone in the organisation. In
such case, changes are fairly easy to realise and it will keep the
organisation alive. As is mentioned in earlier messages, it is a bit
dangerous to create strong attractors, since this introduced force could
cause unwanted flows and effects. In a simmilar manner, also rejectors
could be created, for instance making the present situation a unwanted
situation. Without a nearby attraction, people and flows could spread
towards all directions; it will be hard to manage these flows and persons.
A rejector could be good to get things on the move, but don't forget to
have an attractor.
I hope that I have made clear that rythm and life is a matter of
oscillation between attractors and rejectors. Knowing this, one can easily
find its practical use and also to find training instruments.
And especially for Bruno as a fiction writer, I have copied here a poem of
Christian Morgenstern (1871-1914), a German poet, written in an
international language (I only translated the titel). He made use of the
common signs of the metrical foot in poems, due to our limited
possibilities of e-mail ASCII, I should express the iambe as v-; the "v"
should be a laying part of an arc with an upward opening). The poem is
nice for Christmas time. Here it is:
Spuce's nightsong (Fichtes Nachtgesang)
-
v v
- - -
v v v v
- - -
v v v v
- - -
v v v v
- - -
v v v v
- - -
v v
-
Keep breathing, dance the rythm of life.
dr. Leo D. Minnigh
l.d.minnigh@library.tudelft.nl
Library Technical University Delft
PO BOX 98, 2600 MG Delft, The Netherlands
Tel.: 31 15 2782226
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Let your thoughts meander towards a sea of ideas.
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--Leo Minnigh <l.d.minnigh@library.tudelft.nl>
Learning-org -- Hosted by Rick Karash <rkarash@karash.com> Public Dialog on Learning Organizations -- <http://www.learning-org.com>