Always Beginning

When I reflect on the contribution that Lifespring has been and continues to be, I am very thankful for the opportunity people have created for our work. While we can have a sense of accomplishment, and even accept acknowledgment for what has been produced, I continue to stand in the questions: "What is available? What are the possibilities? What is next for people?" I am in no way criticizing Lifespring's contribution when I tell you that I am also constantly engaged in this other, perhaps more powerful conversation and am living with these questions. I am always looking for a new beginning, an opening for myself and other people.

For the past year I have been studying, from the perspective of personal effectiveness, the works of various twentieth century philosophers, most notably Martin Heidegger, John Searle, and Hubert Dreyfus. At its heart, their work deals with the nature of language and conversations in relation to the phenomenon of the human being. They make some exciting observations that I find directly relevant to Lifespring.

To begin with, they assert that the essential distinction between human beings and all other animals is language. Not that other animals don't signal one another, but that they do not live in language. They do not make promises or requests or invent new possibilities for themselves and others. Human communication, both verbal and nonverbal, is not only generated in language, but the way in which we see the world (our structure of interpretation) is inescapably bound within language.

". . . what we know is not reality but simply knowledge and the knowledge we have is the product of language which attempts to impose a system on the flux of becoming. What we know is not things - in-themselves, but signifiers . . ." Bryan S. Turner
"The Body and Society"

Our concerns, interests, projects, relationships, commitments, and even curiosities exist only in conversations with ourselves and others.

Human beings are more than merely animate objects or "things"; we are events.

If you are like me, this may at first seem like a radical proposition. The more we look at it, however, the more sense it makes. When we accept language as a postulate in the formula defining human beings, then it is easier to grasp the assertion that human beings are processes, fluid systems of conversations with ourselves and others.

Even our history exists in language and conversations. How the world is, how we were raised and how our lives are now (i.e., our culture, traditions, heritage, institutions, religion, etc.) are all products of language, conversation, and agreement.

Page 2