There Is No Off Button

What is perhaps not mentioned enough is how much versatility it takes to engage with communities in this ServiceSpace-y way of emergence. So much happened in the last 12 hours in Taiwan, and yet emergence is directly proportional to my embrace of the unexpected.

That is to say that we just have to be constantly on. Below is a Q&A with youngsters at the community center, in between a "break" ...



And then, we have to make lemonade out of whatever lemons are offered in the moment.

This evening, I had to give a talk to student leaders at Asia University. Dean of Student Affairs, Fred Chang, was translating for me. However, three people showed up. Conference style chair seating looked awkwardly empty. But without skipping a beat, we created a mini circle, and by the end, we were about a dozen of us. I spoke just as I would in front of a thousand people, but because of the intimate setting, we could engage in a much deeper and interactive way. The Dean himself later wrote saying, "Our conversation is going to change how we do all our volunteer programs at Asia University." Professor Shu copied everyone in an email thread saying, "You have changed my life." One of the student leaders hugged me and said in his broken English, "Thank you. I have discovered love today. I will pay it forward." The space in our circle really had gotten very deep.

You just never know what leads to what. My job is simply to bring my A-game, in as many moments as my untiring mind allows, without seeking any particular outcome. That's really ancient wisdom, but I'm seeing the power of that day-in and day-out.

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