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Lovely piece - thank you Karen. It seems useful to ask those who default towards hope alone in what they are putting their trust. In that regard, the patterns, rhythms and fractals of evolution's long trajectory seem the wisest choice, so all that elaborates our felt-sense, insight and meaning around that process is so vital at this time of invented reality. whether described as "values", "emotional sentience" or "transpersonal qualities" there seems to be a growing confluence of awareness realising that evolutionary process involves and evolves through such experiences of relationship, no matter what the entity.

Picking up on the theme echoed by Ian Wight, and at risk of taking cheap advantage of your post, I would invite you, and anyone reading this, to be part of the in-person gathering in Petaluma, California next month which is engaging in heart politics. To borrow your words, a group of self-selected attenders and some remarkable keynote listeners, including the Kauffman's, Steffi Bednarek and Zhiwa, will be exploring "strategies to shift norms and systems based on values inherent to all.... that apply to all people and nature ...generative conversations that bring out what people care deeply about, for everyone ... contribut[ing] to transformative shifts from classical social change to quantum social change." Like you, organisers "hope this strategy will have ripple effects and help others to identify their own hopeful strategies" and build community and collaboration along the way.

Perhaps we can Zoom you in, Karen (unless our going to be in California in a month's time!), and maybe some of your readers will be interested to attend in-person. all welcomed - https://www.heartpolitix.world

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Hi Mark, That looks like a fantastic gathering! In terms of the questions posed, this one really resonates with me right now: "What if everything we have been doing is somewhat useful and somewhat captured by the old?" I wish I could join you in Petaluma next month but I will be focused on the last sprint of the IPBES (UN biodiversity platform) transformative change assessment. I will spread the word!

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Jul 19Liked by Karen O'Brien

Many thanks for this Karen. Nicely provocative, and constructive - especially the learning from Monica Sharma. You had me recalling my own musings about hope a few years ago - in a Linkedin post: https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/identify-networks-hope-power-prompt-ian-wight/ What i am remembering now is the networking context, and its connection to meshworking. Hope was important, but more so was the networking around it. Which also had me recalling my earlier engagement with a suggestion that planning - my mian professional domain - be framed as 'the organization of hope', leading me to encopurage my students to cast their planning aspiration as 'hope-organizing', and themselves as 'hope-organizers'. I'm still inclined in this direction in my interest in transforming 'professionals' into 'integrals'. I see this as involving a push beyond mere agency into the realms of transformency. This can take me beyond hope into the realms of faith, and faithing. Wondering how this contexting might intersect with your quantum social change work. Thanks for the stimulation. Ian Wight

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Hi Ian, Thanks for sharing your musings on hope! I love the idea of hope organizers and networks of hope, and a shift from agency to transformency. The Anthropocene Lab at the Swedish Academy of Science has a project on "The Empirics of Hope" which is exploring the science of hope: https://www.anthropocenelab.se/empirics-of-hope/ -- the "organization of hope" may be of interest to them!

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Ian, I don;'t know where you're based, but I hope you might come to the Petaluma Gathering next month - https://www.heartpolitix.world.

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Thanks for this Mark... emailing a followup. Cheerrrrrs! Ian W

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