ambition & idealism

[Adam Blatner]

Response to Bernard's email, my comments interspersed:
   From: bernard widlake  To: Adam Blatner ; list at grouptalkweb.org  
Sent: Tuesday, July 25, 2006 Subject: Re: Ambition I hope this goes to list serve as well as just to Adam, as that is what it is meant for. 
     BW I am a little shy of talking about ambition. It is not a very British thing to speak of . I think we are better at being discovered, havingmodestly been quiet about how great we are. But I do find myself ambitious, when it is put before me the way it has been. I so want to make the world a better place. Having a five-year-old daughter makes this a more focussed enterprise, but I think of the starving in the world, of those suffering now in Lebanon, and [assionately want to do somemthing about it. I also see the suffering of those I encounter daily, and long to offer them a littleof the empathy I myself have received, which could transform their lives, if only they could find it without being too threatened.  
       AB. Yes, ambition overlaps with desire to make things better. Another word that has gotten a negative connotation is power, or control, or politics. But what other ways are there for an idealist to seek to improve something in his family-- a new rule, a new agreement; in his club?-- ditto, a new bylaw. in his community? A campaign to enlarge the public library?  Is this not power, control, politics?  So maybe the problem is that of the synecdoche  (fancy word for the rhetorical device of using a part to describe the whole, or the whole to describe the part)...   that control is only a part of the story. It needs a modifier, such as kind, wise, foolish, brutal.. in itself, though, it is neutral. So perhaps with ambition.
 
      BW  We are having a party for my 75th. birthday, and I am thinking a lot about what I might say. I have always had this vision of  my     connection with nature,   and have many photographs of beautiful mountains, streams, snow, trees, from Australia, New Zealand, America, Isreal, Jordan, and the UK.. My spirituality now connects me the the ancient world and its growth, and I sift through my experience to think what I can usefully do with the next  75 years.
           AB: Ah, yes, I'm gettting ready for my 69th B'day. A time to take stock. I hear the strains of the 1970 song, "What's it all about, Alfie?"

   BW   But a point from Adam is what I especially wanted to respond to. It concerned his valuing his relationship and the time devoted to fostering this. I believe our personal relationships with family and friends need incorporating into our psychodramatic professional development, and somehow being valued as a contribution to our professional field.
      Often it is here, where lack of formality and distance leave us vulnerable, that our true selves appear, and our shadow can be manifes itself.  True motivation in our work then appears, and painful though it is, much of the bubble of our supposed idealism is pricked and  put into perspective. This can only enrich what is offered others by endowing it with a deaper authenticity. I go back to "Power in the Helping Professions" (Geggenheim....)and the author's suggestion that we listen to our family and even ourenemies if we want to identify   our own shadow. Maybe then we would have fewer people getting ill in their helping work, and losing their close relationships (no judgements here, just a question)..
     AB: I'm not sure what you mean here, Bernard. I take it that you refer to the way psychologically-minded people need to keep working on themselves, clearing up their own shadow complexes, their own blind spots, and there's nothing like close family to help expose these and also--if you're lucky--even help as co-counselor in clarifying and healing them. Is that what you mean?  If so, yes, significant credit to my productivity in many ways goes to the astute observations, helpful criticisms, and unflagging support of my wife, Allee. Indeed, we joke but are serious about being "sadhana buddies," sadhana being a Sanskrit term for spiritual practice. And leading to the next point, I do see good psychology and spiritual development as complementary.

  BW     There is a big gap in society for a spritual element. I've just done s "ceremony" with a couple whose child is developmentally impaired, and who wanted something for her first birthday which would acknowledge the loss and sadness and struggle, as well as the joy of a new family member. Thy chose lovely readings, and finished with a spiral dance with my wife playing guitar music.
       But is this professional practice? Sad if it is not incorporated somewhere in our repertoire, and acknowledged officially. But how?
      AB: In the (I think, 2000) issue of our International Journal of Action Methods, I had published a paper on the psychodramatist as a master of ceremonies, and am expanding that in a chapter in the anthology I'm working on. (If you want a copy of the file, Bernard, I can send it.) Yes, I see psychodrama as a natural vehicle--not classical psychodrama, but the integration of group dynamics, action methods, creatively adapted for the needs of the moment (close to my definition of spontaneity), in creating rituals, ceremonies, celebrations. There are now actual programs for creative ritualists, "celebrants," you can google the word. 

      Thanks for your evocative sharing. Warmly, Adam
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