Questions Create Buoyancy

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   We live in a culture fed by technology, delivering international news almost simultaneous to the events as they occur. Compassion weariness can lead people to polarizing issues as a reaction, leaping to "right" or "wrong" stances reflecting their values. Opposing positions on a linear axis leave little room for discussion. When "Value" is used as a verb, the term promotes wonder, questions, and dialog.

   
   

    Thinking and speaking in questions creates buoyancy in the conversation and spawns ever deeper and more meaningful questions. Our intention with this book is to trigger the ongoing productive dialog regarding what is going wrong with arts, education and society by inviting substantive questions. We should not expect immediate answers or involve pejorative comments that flatly criticize or condemn. We all know the problems.

   
   

    Getting to the answers is an exciting process of questions that together reveal vectors of entry toward the issues’ centers. There are no quick fixes. Revamping the mindset of the collective is the ultimate goal and respectfully requires many minds working together to identify and articulate the "disease". 

                                                                                                                                                                                  – Eric Funk
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   Once the book is available and people have an opportunity to read and respond, significant dialog will ensue.

   
   

   
   

   As Gary points out, most of what we have said is not new. Rather, it has remained unsaid. For the sake of status quo, too many people remain silent, suggesting acceptance of the problems. Social structures may reward a suspension of high neutral and sustained ambivalence. There is, however, a critical point when looking the other way contributes to the erosion of quality simply for resignation to the tacit agreement that the situation, while untenable, must be accepted as a given.

   
   

   Revolution has a deep connection with turning that which is static toward something more fertile, promoting growth. Working in a “living” space inspires and ignites natural human passion. Working in a dead space does neither. The terrarium effect forces growth back on itself by simply having an upper limit.

   
   

    I don't like the phrase "think outside the box". There isn't any box. Once someone says that phrase, they have just put you in one. There isn't any terrarium either. The only upper limit is self-imposed or requires the individual to accept the imposition.

   
   

                                                                                                                                                                                          –Eric Funk