Who We Are Becoming

Each of us is formed by family and cultural traditions, national identity and holiday celebrations, education, religious beliefs, and factors that present themselves in our separate timelines.  We live our individual lives... with many similarities... but with just as many differences... as those around us.

When major events happen, our memories are galvanized around those events:  Do you remember when humans first landed on the moon?  What were you doing when you heard the news that Princess Diana had died?  Did you see the World Trade Center's Twin Towers collapse?

What memories are impressed on who you are?
(Photo: 9-11 Memorial, New York City - Larry Gardepie)

Each generation has its own defining moments: the Great Depression of the 1930s, Pearl Harbor in 1941, World Wars I and II, the assassinations of President Kennedy, Martin Luther King, Jr., and Senator Robert Kennedy in the 1960s...  We are shaped by and identify with many events.

These thoughts were going through my mind as I stood at the 9-11 Memorial in New York City:  the footprint of the two towers defined by the names of world citizens who died that late summer morning over twenty years ago, the sound of water falling into these acre-sized Monuments to Time.

Are there symbols of who you want to become?
(Photo:  Liberty at Sunset - Larry Gardepie)

I wondered about other Footprints Impressed on each of our lives as we try to understand the diversity and common unity of being human:  what we share; what binds us together; and what separates us.  At times we need national or universal symbols or leaders who point the way to our "better angels" as Abraham Lincoln described in his first inaugural address in 1861.

Symbols that remind us of the freedom to choose, to accept, and to support.

What illuminates your life?
(Photo:  New York City at Sunset - Larry Gardepie)

As I reflect on who I am as a person and who we are as a nation, I wonder where we are headed... in essence, Who are We Becoming?  We can remain on autopilot and follow the direction from others or we can choose to participate in this Action of Becoming:

• Do I choose to be generous with my time and resources in helping others?
• Can I illuminate the dark or unknown paths by sharing what I know?
• Will I listen to other perspectives and engage in curious inquiry?

As we answer these individual and communal questions:

• May we recognize the footprints of family and friends in our lives.
• May we understand the impressions we make on others.
• May we choose to become the Better Angels of our time.

 

Larry Gardepie

Dialogue San Diego Consulting

(click on link for website)

Understanding Our Impact

To minimize the impact on Glacier Bay National Park, cruise ships and boats are required to power slowly through these glacial-silted waters.  Also, slowing down reduces the danger of hitting icebergs calved from the nearby glaciers.

Looking back, the wake of our ship makes gentle impressions that blend back the reflected scenes surrounding us.  It is a magical setting: an environment that is rooted in millennia of glacial activity, ever-changing, too majestic to absorb in one viewing.

By slowing down, the ship's noise lessens and we are left with the impact of silence and beauty.

Do you see your impact?
(Photo:  entering Glacier Bay National Park,
Larry Gardepie)

In comparison, when we were making our approach to Juneau a day earlier, we were met with jet skiers racing towards us and seaplanes buzzing over us as they escaped the water's grasp or landed gracefully ahead of us.

Both scenes are set in the grand waterways carved by glaciers and ringed by tall mountain ranges dotted with late summer glaciers still hanging from the peaks.  Creation beckons.

What impression do you make?
(Photo:  Jet Skiers, Juneau, Alaska,
Larry Gardepie)

Even in these settings I am thinking of dialogue and relationship:

• The importance of slowing down and paying attention;
• The ability to encounter and acknowledge who and what is seen; and,
• The impact or impression that our words, expressions, and actions have on others.

Our fast-paced world sometimes requires us to throttle back and pay attention.  But, are we willing?

What mark do you want to make in life?
(Photo, Ocean Sunset, Victoria, British Columbia,
Larry Gardepie)

Toward the end of our journey, we entered the waters surrounding Victoria, British Columbia.  A jet contrail crossed the evening sky, absorbing the brilliance of the sunset.  Though present to the unfolding beauty, my mind drifted back to my grandparent's backyard in the Midwest.  They enjoyed sitting outside when the hot summer day was cooling and watch the jets criss-cross their small plot of land... and each would say:  "I wonder where everyone is going?"

 

I am discovering that dialogue and relationship is about questions:

• Where am I -- or you -- going?
• What am I -- or you -- seeing along the way?
• How might we carve out time to experience the beauty and majesty of each other?
• What impact or impression blends back the reflections surrounding us?

I am just wondering:  Where are you going this week as you criss-cross my life?  Do you understand the impact you have on me?

 

Larry Gardepie

Dialogue San Diego Consulting

(click on link for website)

Portraits: What is Missing?

I enjoy viewing the public artwork in my city and while traveling.  To display creativity and beauty invites or encourages us to do the same: be creative in our thoughts; search for beauty in others.  We try to connect, to recognize something familiar.

While on a recent trip, I was stopped by several forms of artwork: pieces of tile arranged to reveal a Dutch nobleman; people dressed in black and red to silhouette the face of Marilyn Monroe; and a figure seated in a Sukhasana pose.

What makes up who we are?

Each of these art objects draw upon individuals (tiles, people, strips of metal) to form the whole.  Similar to a jigsaw puzzle, a missing piece would cause the image to be unfinished, incomplete, not whole. Remember what it was like to get to the end of the puzzle and discover one piece was missing?!

Is that what it is like when a loved one dies, moves away, or leaves us when there is a disagreement?  We feel separated, unfinished, incomplete, not whole.

Can we look beyond our first impressions?
(See what makes up the black and red marks,
click on image to enlarge)

I wonder if that is also true when we do not explore our assumptions about others, our conclusions about their intentions, or how we no longer see how they have changed?  We remain unfinished, incomplete, not whole.

If we focus only on the individual tiles or people in the Dutchman and Marilyn portraits, we lose the ability to see the image that is created when we come together.  Or, maybe we are locked inside the shell of what we believe: a hollow cavern that imprisons us by our thoughts.

Is there more to us than our outer shell?

This doesn't mean that we must give up our values and what is important to us.  Instead, we are invited to share what makes us unique -- while at the same time, listen and accept what is important and unique about the other person.  What binds us together is the Spirit that created and infused us with beauty.  Our goal is to seek the Both-And of the unique individuals we are and the beauty created when we come together.

May we seek out what or who is missing is our lives and learn to cherish our ability to see the whole.
 

Larry Gardepie

Dialogue San Diego Consulting

(click on link for website)