More Blank Pages, Please.

Dear John,

Thanks for this honest post. I find that I am often struck by your willingness to be candid on topics so close to home. I hear you, too. Enough already, you’d rather get on with the creating and offering because you’ve done your time in the analysis and commentary stage. This resonates and brings to mind a situation I experienced earlier this year.

I attended a 4 day workshop in Gestalt organizational development. Under each participant’s seat was a brown paperback book with the title: Making a Difference With My Presence. Initially, I didn’t take much notice. I assumed it would contain scripts or other materials from the workshop. On the afternoon of the first day, I finally looked inside. The first 18 pages indeed offered some frameworks, diagrams and short essays as reminders of the work we were doing. The remaining 200+ pages were blank. The message was clear: here are some seeds and a little soil, you go do the rest.

So it seems to me that you are ready for more blank pages. Twitter becomes a great repository for all manner of interesting takes on the dilemmas of the educational enterprise but it is not where you go to enjoy the freedom and opportunity of blank space. Twitter is distributed input nonstop. Making a difference with your presence, I believe, is tied up more and more with the distinct spaces we create on our own and perhaps outside the main channels of social media and the field of education. The difference that you make will likely emerge from the deliberate use of fresh, open spaces.

The world will be richer as we encourage our children and peers to find their own blank pages in order to truly create. In the hopes that this makes sense,

Sincerely,

Sherri S.