In the world of safety the ALARA principle is well known (As low as reasonably achievable), but recent experiences made me define this acronym in a whole new way. On LinkedIn I received from someone, somewhere in my network (2nd degree) each day a “Quote of the Day”. Nice and juicy one may think to have a fresh start of the day. Those quotes were copied from philosophers and other remarkable individuals in history like Jung. The quote from Jung drew my attention and read as follows “To be aware of myself I need to be distinct from others. Only with this distinction in place, there can be a relationship”. Nice, really nice but it made me wonder why I received this unsolicited information that was old and did not contain any real message with new insights or information. So I posted a comment “Dear …., this is a quote from Jung, what is your opinion?”. She “What I think is not so much of interest. I just present the quotes, so one can think”. This answer just amazed me as I know this individual presents herself as coach and a reader/healer practitioner with many years of reflective study. The conversation developed as follows; me “When you want the reader to think you have to think yourself as well. Real insight start with yourself and not with others”. She “Dear John, do you really think I present quotes without having thought about the quotes? What is it you want to tell me?”. Me “When you present readers with (unsolicited!) quotes from others to let people think, you just step into the loophole of repetition and this is dead energy. Only when you present your new and original view you add something to the whole: living energy. What you are doing here is starting a life and death cycle by presenting quotes from others to others; which can only by definition be sustainable when you co-create instead of copying as you do now”.
Again she amazed me as I found all comments deleted the next day… Nevertheless I added another one only to see it was deleted again “The deletion of a comment brings to mind who is aware: the one that deletes or the one that comments… By the way, all comments have been stored by me and by Akasha”. The reader may guess what happened next: the comment was deleted again.
It brings me to the title of this blog. When in a discussion things start to become alive, energy flows, new insights are co-created, people warm up and a real exchange of new living energy is experience: the gift of discussion! Until someone finds the result of the discussion getting too close to old personal beliefs which may not be touched or experienced and all goes dead. The cycle so nicely started just dies off and the moment of personal truth is passed by…. This is just what happened in the mentioned discussion I had on LinkedIn: it started up but died before it ever started up. Why? Because the essence of the discussion got to close to the beliefs of the reader and she did not want to accept the concept of birth and death, gather and let go: the concept of co-creation.
However, something good did turn up… she brought me in touch with the concept of ALARA – As Living As Readers Allow.
Comments welcome, now you know why!
