Polarities and Other Facts of Life

When I started writing, my obsession was courage. I had a company (InCourage) that existed to help individuals generate the courage necessary for organizations to be sustainable. I wrote essays about courage in an organizational context that were targeted principally for my clients. I amassed enough of them to assemble them into a book (Our CouerAge). Alas, after 15 years, InCourage died a natural death when it become quite evident that courage was not part of corporate DNA, and individuals within them felt stuck and chose to keep their head down and swallow hard.

That was then this is now. InCourage is being reborn in this blog and I will be exploring the tension between “the pilgrim” — wanting nothing more than to explore his/her world: the unfamiliar landscapes; the history we need to learn; the tolerance that comes from learning the culture of other, and “the homebody” — who yearns for everything that represents familiar surroundings they have created, their valued relationships, their community. What is more important to you? It’s a trick question.

“The tension between polarities is the birthplace of the experience of courage”

- Peter Koestenbaum

Often our choices are looked at as either/or decisions — like: either take care of the economy or the environment; be creative but don’t make mistakes; and that tired old chestnut anyone working in a corporation knows all too well, do more with less. It was a profound shift in mindset for me to look at the “polarities” of life as a “both/and” opportunity rather than an “either/or” choice.

Hopefully, after reading a few posts you will find Home and Away is another polarity, and the answer of living a full life is not to lean into one at the expense of the other — but to lean into both.