The Bigger Picture

This misuse of one of the most precious aspects of being alive is ubiquitous. Our children are growing into a severely fragmented world, our bodies are showing the illnesses of disconnection, and our communities are divided. Politics and technology are merging into an alarming communication horror story with AI to categorize us all into our algorit... See more

One of his observations is that when any aspect of a living system is torn from its contextual relationships, it can then be exploited. How a description is made of a person, a family, a community, a culture, or an ecosystem –matters.

Communication is not what is said or even what is not said. Communication is what is received in the context. Additionally, communication is not what is on the transcript; it is what it was possible to say or not say. As living creatures, our perception is made up of combining bits of stimuli. We put notes together to form songs, we combine light t... See more

Given this understanding that "control" is at best an illusion and at worst a devastating violence to living systems, the question that Bateson was asking is: How does change happen? How does a family change? How does a marriage change? How does an ecosystem change? How does a culture change?

An understanding of living systems reveals that change c... See more

Communication is the birthright of living organisms to make combinations, contrasts, and generate relationships. To climb a mountain is to combine the body's balance, muscles, temperatures, and breath with the circumstances of the hike. Is it a date? Or are you running from a bear? We combine information beyond our verbal words. We combine impressi... See more

The need to create time for analog human to human communication cannot be underestimated now. There will be no community without first communing.

This is not about making a new script or vocabulary. It is about contextual and transcontextual shifts. Ecologies move in inter-relational ways — Bateson said this 80 years ago, and his father, William Bateson, said it in 1888. Indigenous cultures have been saying this for thousands of years.

How do you think about change if not in linear strategies? You tend to the relationships.

All living and social systems are vitalized through their relational ecologies. When the relationships shift, the whole structure of the surrounding relationships also shifts.

The more relational, contextual understanding there is, the less likely polarities are to take over. Thus began the work to create a scientific inquiry that would study how systems are entangled.