Ecosymbolism Philosophy & The Dance

A Living Circle — From the Pulse of Life

Dance of Life Rhythm

El Ritmo de la Danza de la Vida

I invite you to follow the thread of communication—to Dialogue and Knowledge, to turn around, to create together, and to continue moving, carried by the music and the rhythm.

Like the notes of a symphony, each of us brings something into the composition. We speak, we listen, we learn, we answer, we create, and we transmit.

I challenge you to follow the thread of communication.

Listen to the notes. Add your own.

And allow the Dance to continue.

The elements of Ecosymbolism can be described separately, but they do not exist separately.

Dialogue, Knowledge, Introspection, the Turning Point, the Beginning, Protagonism, Merit, Construction and Destruction, Collective Creativity and Echo are individual movements within the same Dance.

Like the ingredients of a recipe, each has a particular function. But the result exists through their interaction.

They do not always occur in a rigid order. Several may be happening at the same time. One may become more visible at a particular moment, disappear into the background, and return again as circumstances change.

Ecosymbolism is a continuous work in progress.

A Turning Point, for example, does not appear from nowhere.

Before we can make a meaningful decision, we may need Knowledge. We may need Dialogue with others. We may need empirical observation and critical thinking. We may need Introspection—the ability to examine our own fears, prejudices, habits, desires and assumptions.

Eventually, however, all that thinking encounters a moment of decision.

And decision requires valiance.

There comes a moment when someone has to leave the shore and enter the unknown.

That is the Beginning.

But a Beginning does not mean that Dialogue or Knowledge has ended. Once we act, reality begins answering us. We gain experience. We make mistakes. Other people respond. New information appears. We listen again. We correct ourselves. We may encounter another Turning Point.

The movements continue interacting.

The Voice and the Receptor

The same principle exists within Dialogue.

Speaking alone is not dialogue.

There must be a receptor.

We live in a world full of people who want to speak, express, publish, argue, propose and be heard. But communication cannot fulfill its purpose if nobody is truly receiving it.

The receptor is not a passive follower.

To receive requires attention.

To listen requires discipline.

To understand another person's idea requires temporarily making room for something that was not already inside our own mind.

And here lies one of the quiet secrets of conversation:

The person speaking is expressing what they already know. The person listening has the opportunity to learn what they did not know.

Listening does not mean agreeing.

It means receiving enough information to examine it.

The listener may eventually accept the idea, reject it, question it, correct it, improve it, combine it with another idea, or discover something within it that even the speaker had not recognized.

That is a meaningful Echo.

An Echo is therefore not simply repetition.

The right Echo requires a receptor capable of attention, understanding and critical thought.

Without that receptor, a brilliant idea may remain inside a notebook, a computer, a workshop, a laboratory or a human mind.

What is the point of sharing if there is no Echo?

The Courage to Participate

Every movement within the Dance requires a form of courage.

It takes courage to listen to something that may challenge what we believe.

It takes courage to search for Knowledge beyond what our group already accepts.

It takes courage to examine ourselves.

It takes courage to question the herd.

It takes courage to recognize a Turning Point.

And it takes courage to make a Beginning—to jump into the unknown without a guarantee of what will happen next.

Protagonism is not simply being the person who speaks first or leads everybody else.

Sometimes protagonism means proposing.

Sometimes it means creating.

Sometimes it means questioning.

Sometimes it means recognizing Merit in another person's idea.

And sometimes it means having the intelligence and humility to listen and follow a direction that deserves to be followed.

Following blindly is not Ecosymbolism.

Neither is rejecting an idea merely because it came from someone else.

Both require critical thought.

The Circle Begins Again

No solution completes the Dance.

A solution produces consequences.

Consequences produce experience.

Experience produces new information.

Information enters Dialogue.

Someone receives it.

Someone questions it.

Knowledge changes.

Another problem becomes visible.

Another Turning Point appears.

Another Beginning becomes possible.

This is why Ecosymbolism does not aspire to human perfection.

We are a work in progress.

If everything were perfect, there would be nothing left to question, nothing to learn, nothing to correct and nothing to create.

The Dance exists because life continues to change.

The same principles can operate in a conversation between two people, within a family, inside a scientific laboratory, in the construction or destruction of something, between opposing ideas, in decisions of war and peace, or across an entire society searching for solutions.

The scale changes.

The Dance does not.

Dialogue feeds Knowledge.

Knowledge helps create the Turning Point.

The Turning Point makes a Beginning possible.

The Beginning requires Protagonism.

Action encounters reality.

Reality tests Merit.

Construction and Destruction produce new conditions.

Collective Creativity searches for possibilities.

Echo carries what has been learned to another mind.

And the receptor listens.

From there, the circle begins again.

The Dance continues.