The Alchemical Mix Of Differences.

This is the focus of this blog for me: How can we each, as totally unique beings on the planet, dance with our differences and yet still hold each in our hearts and have fun with the process.

Differences are so often seen and braced against as being a problem, as being impossible to bridge. How can we turn any dialectic, any play of opposites into medicine and fuel for transformation?

The two main characters in the play of this blog, Tom and Bruce, are incredibly different in many ways, almost opposites. They have known each other since 1976 when they were both living near the Zen Center in San Francisco, and have, for the most part stayed in touch since then.

The playful navigation of differences has been a theme all along.

This morning Tom emailed Bruce about wanting him to post new posts rather than adding comments. He also wanted Bruce to move a comment to a post before he would read it. Now this may seem like a mundane event, hardly worthy of mention, and yet it points to this Dance of Difference.

For the Bruce Character, in this case, what is important and interesting is the fiery hot and happening flow of expressions and explosions. Keeping that going, no matter what the form, is the priority for him, how that happens is an incidental footnote. Also he likes mixing it up, doing it differently different ways.

As Bruce emailed Tom, I want 80% of we do to be about the alive doing of it, yeah structures are important, for 20% of it, but when that gets too big it is like a ocean of water putting out the fire.

In a long discussion of blog titles, he watched his energy drain out of this. For him, it felt like an on going conversation was hijacked, by trifles.

When he sees white-picket fences, part of him wants to mow them down. Of course he is fine with doing posts rather than comments, but having to move something before it gets responded to is, arggg, way out of the confines of his 80/20 preference.

So here we see a manifestation of a difference between these two characters.

It is so easy to think, whew it would seem to be so much easier to not to have to navigate this, and both Bruce and Tom have had this thought at different intervals.

And yet, God, through the two of them, is drawn to this challenge as well.

It is so easy to react, to judge, and there is something about really groking the others perspective that is sweet and can lead to breakthrough.

Bruce is still want to get, really get, feel why Tom sends out emails about Bush. This is something Bruce would never even think of doing, as he sees it as very counter-productive and even dangerous.

For me the context of how to work with differences is of greater interest than the content of any specific difference.