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Insights & Distinctions Buy Now
El Foro Landmark
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In community, the undoable becomes doable
There is no selfhood where there’s no community.
We do not relate to others as the persons we are;
we are who we are in the relating to others.*
When we think about the communities we’ve been a part of, many of them came to be because of something we happened to be involved with at the time (buddies from high school or college, our book club, our sports teams, co-workers on some great project, our neighbors, our volunteer activities, our online friends, etc.) We connect with remarkable people along the way, and they continue to be enormously valuable throughout our lives, long after the particular experience in time has ended. Yet it’s with them and through them that we come to be, express ourselves, and are known for who we are.
In living a transformed life, we begin to see ourselves in new ways. We think and act outside existing views and limits. We redefine reality as we’ve known it and see that same possibility available to groups, to broader communities of people. We are presented with the challenge to step forward and discover what it will take to move from what we see or imagine as possible into action. It’s of course far more complex when it involves a wide range of individuals, diverse groups, and points of view, and requires a certain clarity and audacity about the real work it takes to bring something new into being. It’s there, in the minds, hearts, and actions of people that possibilities are born. It’s in community—participating and expressing ourselves—that we and others come to be known and the undoable becomes doable.
* James P. Carse
Nancy Zapolski
Landmark Forum leader
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