Irwin Kula
I am a disruptive spiritual innovator, rogue thinker, and author of the award-winning book, Yearnings: Embracing the Sacred Messiness of Life. I am president of Clal-The National Jewish Center for Learning and Leadership, a do-tank working at the intersection of religion, innovation and the science of human flourishing. I am co-founder, with Craig Hatkoff and the late Professor Clay Christensen, of the Disruptor Foundation whose mission is to raise awareness of and encourage the application of disruptive innovation theory in the societal-critical domain.
NEW lead-in from Alex Tulloch:
Whenever someone asks about ReShawn or Sedric or Floyd or Cedric or Calvin, I always introduce them the same way: as my brothers. And every time I say that, the response I usually get is "Well, not your brother brother." That's always confused me, because while we're not biologically related, we're certainly connected in a way that I could primarily describe as brotherly. So Irwin's piece helped me add another word to describe the connection that we share; a sensation that I've grown to feel amongst our CFC, a family family (whatever that means).
(PIP LEAD: Damar Hamlin asked “Did we win?” when he awoke. Many – including myself – cried even hearing him utter anything but could he have said anything more powerful? )
Who is the WE?
I love that question and can’t help but reflect.
Here are three WE's.
I woke up this morning with a fever and a sore throat and the first thing I thought was not that I have Covid - I don’t- nor even how bad I felt. It was that I would not be able to be at our gathering today. I have literally been counting the days to physically see people I feel so much respect for and feel so connected to.
At some point today, Pip was going to have me riff on a Yiddish word he heard for the first time a week or so ago.
The word is “mish-puh-chah”…..(emphasis on that guttural “ch”!)
What was unsurprisingly synchronistic - given it was Pip- is that I have been wrestling for a good few months with how to define this group of people who come together under the Coburn sacred canopy.
And mishpucha is the perfect description!!!
I shared this note below this morning with a dear dear friend and then with Irwin. Amazing thinking I received back from Irwin…. Not a surprise. I hope it makes a difference. It is a bit longer than normal Writer’s Circle notes.
I feel blessed to be a part of this community. In thinking about the serious challenges and uncertainty we face a few things have come to mind that Pip invited me to share.
Question for Irwin:
There is an idea that we can learn from every single person on the planet. But there are also deeply ingrained habits we have been trained in that “teachers” have a formal designation which might limit our scope for learning. With that thought, does someone come to mind in the past five weeks that you wouldn’t consider a “formal” teacher at all but who you learned something special from… (perhaps even someone you aren’t even fond of) ?