Mentored by Books Part IV: A World of Learning

"The Shores of Great Silence"

Every so often you have a chance meeting with someone who makes an indelible mark on your way of thinking. On a plane you happen to sit by someone who has given their lives to an intriguing endeavor or through a friend, at a casual gathering, you meet someone who is living out their life purpose in a way that inspires you to be a better person. I’ve had a few of those chance encounters and I’ve also had them with authors through their books.

Several years ago I determined to round out my reading habits to include subject matter that doesn’t necessarily draw me. I started reading books from science as well as history, business as well as biography and a few contemporary novels as well as classics.

In the world of business I started with Stephen Covey. His book Seven Habits of Highly Effective People was a best seller so I figured I couldn’t go too wrong. It’s been several years since I’ve read the book, but I still remember clearly the gist of an opening story, if not the details.

Covey tells about an experience with his then very young son, maybe two or three years old. He was playing with another child whose parent was also present. Covey’s child did not want to share and kicked up quite a fuss. Unfortunately Covey had his own little scene, though it was just internal. Covey intervened in the children’s play and forced his child to share. A revelatory moment came in Covey's internal dialogue that followed. The long and short of it was Covey detected a lack of integrity in himself. He wanted to be seen in a good light by his friend and colleague and felt his son’s selfishness would reflect on him. He intervened with the wrong motive and with a strategy he regretted.

We’ve all had those moments when we got at cross-purposes with our own values. The unique thing about Covey’s experience is that he carried this desire to deal with his lack of internal integrity right in to his business world and told about it in the book, sharing the principles involved as one of the keys to success. This peaked my interest.

I went on to read several of Covey’s books, took copious notes and used the principles I learned from him in my own life and then in some leadership development training that I did.

By the time I finished Stephen Covey’s books, I was less daunted by the heftier volume by Peter Senge, The Fifth Discipline. Here I was introduced to the concepts of identifying governing ideas, mutual inquiry and creative tension, all of which are applicable in the way we live our lives as well as in the way we might manage an organization.

In an article published online by Infed entitled “Peter Senge and the learning organizaion” by Mark Smith in 2001, Smith gets to the heart of Senge’s appeal, at least for me.

For Peter Senge, real learning gets to the heart of what it is to be human.

We become able to re-create ourselves. This applies to both individuals

and organizations. Thus, for a 'learning organization it is not enough to

survive. '"Survival learning" or what is more often termed "adaptive learning"

is important - indeed it is necessary. But for a learning organization,

"adaptive learning" must be joined by "generative learning", learning that

enhances our capacity to create' (Sense 1990"14).

I love this! And what a mantra to live by, learning to enhance our capacity to create! And who would have thought these concepts could be found in the business world by just a chance encounter.

I have had a dalliance or two with Stephen Hawkings, not that I understand even a fraction of what he says, but I am stretching my understanding of the Universe a bit. I have conversed with Marx, Shakespeare and Rumi, none of which I fully grasped or even felt that I had gained a toe hold with, but I have gone to the outer edge of myself in those times and found some space I didn’t know was there.

What I want is to be awake, always, to recognize the gifts that come to me, that are right in front of me. I want to take the hand of the living being I’m next to, whether literally or virtually and join them in their adventure, to listen and to learn. Here is a poem by Antonio Machado, a well-known and respected 19th century Spanish poet.

Is My Soul Asleep?

Is my soul asleep? Have those beehives that work in the night stopped. And the water- wheel of thought, is it going around now, cups empty, carrying only shadows?

No, my soul is not asleep It is awake, wide awake. It neither sleeps nor dreams, but watches, its eyes wide open, far-off things, and listens at the shores of the great silence.

By Antonio Machado

Translated by Robert Bly

How do you connect with “the shores of the great silence?”

Writing Prompt for the Week: Chance Meeting