Thought→Word→Deed: Questioning Language Can Be a Powerful Tool for Creating a Better Future // with Lisa Maroski

You have used language your whole life. Have you stopped to think about how it uses you?

In this class we will inquire into the workings of language itself—its assumptions, structures, limitations, and possibilities. 

By considering those aspects of language that we take for granted, we can think about and then speak into being a better future for ourselves and others.

How? We use language to create our social structures, including government (laws), commerce (contracts), education (lessons), entertainment (books, movies), and even our relationships with others. 

For example, laws and contracts specify which rights and responsibilities people have. Specific words ritually enacted determine who is married. To create a more just, equitable, and sustainable world, we must not only question our personal and cultural assumptions about language but also examine how injustice, war, and one-sidedness are built into the very structures of our language (English). Then, most importantly, we can imagine new structures. 

For example, the shape of our human bodies (head on top, eyes on front, left/right symmetry) influences not just the way we perceive but also the way we think (e.g., higher is better). Imagine having the shape and perception of an octopus; how might you perceive and think differently? 

Through readings, discussions, and creative activities, we explore the interconnectedness of various aspects of language via philosophy, linguistics, and science, even guided meditation and art! 

This course is based on the instructor’s Nautilus award-winning book, Embracing Paradox, Evolving Language: Expressing the Unity and Complexity of Integral Consciousness.

Week By Week 

Each session will have a didactic part, discussion, and activity, except week 8, which will focus on integrating the elements of the course. Participants are expected to read 10-20 pages of text before the next session (starting with week 2), so that the discussion can be engaging for everyone. 

The ultimate goal of this course is: 

• A shift of perspective, which could translate into personal and professional life—they go together hand-in-hand—as greater empathy and more willingness to question the status quo and who or what it serves. 

• Second, by developing a capacity for asking deeper questions, participants will develop skills to transcend the standard problem-solution paradigm. 

• Third, by seeing how metaphors are built into literal language (e.g., Time Is Money; Progress Is Good; Crime Is A Beast) and consequently structure the way we think, participants will be able to subtly introduce new ways of thinking into their profession.

Week 1: Overview of the course. Introduction to polarities and supplementarities. On the importance of asking penetrating questions. Activity—Drawing on the idea behind Vision Boards, participants will create a Question Board, which will empower them to deepen their question-asking capacity.

Week 2: To better understand polarities, either/or thinking, and both/and thinking, we will explore the implications of Mobius strips and Klein bottles. Activity—make your own Mobius strip and its offspring.

Week 3: Introduction to the interconnected aspects of language (words, syntax, semantics, logic, metaphors, categories, and culture) and how they all work together to maintain the status quo. Activity—draw/diagram your conception of the relations among those aspects.

Week 4: More on metaphors. They’re not just for poetry—we reason using metaphors too! Activity—create a project that applies what you are learning here to some area of your life that is important to you (and hopefully also important for all Life). The project will draw on ideas from your Question Board and continue to refine key questions. The project can be something in personal and/or professional life, such as improving a relationship with a family member or coworker, or something in public life, such as raising awareness about an issue that you’re passionate about. It can be something doable in the final four weeks or something open-ended. Participants will be put into breakout rooms to help each other develop and refine their ideas for a project.

Week 5: Picking up another thread from week 3, we’ll go into more depth about systems thinking and perspective-taking, -seeking, and -integrating. Activity—some perspective-taking role-playing exercises. These powerful exercises can be used in life to foster understanding, build community, and develop collective wisdom.

Week 6: What other languages have that English doesn’t. Examples will be gleaned from linguistic anthropology. If participants are fluent in other languages, they will be invited to share about them. Activity—questions and conversation about projects, to keep them on track.

Week 7: Inspiration from conlanging (making constructed language). I will show excerpts from the movie Conlanging: The Art of Crafting Tongues. This movie is highly inspirational and shows examples of profound creativity vis à vis language. Discussion—differences between inventing entirely new languages and innovating our existing language(s).

Week 8: Participants will share the projects they have worked on during the class, and together re-weave the threads from the previous sessions. Doing this collectively enables participants to perceive a “whole” that might look different than the one they wove for themselves. Participants will be encouraged to share what they got out of the class and/or how they expect to continue using the material in the future.

Materials required: Embracing Paradox, Evolving Language: Expressing the Unity and Complexity of Integral Consciousness, notebook, drawing pad and pens (analog or digital), scissors.

As a way to foster community, I will be available via Zoom for “office hours” at various times throughout the course (so that participants with schedule conflicts can potentially visit). Participants can stop by to ask questions, brainstorm, or just chat.

Book ordering info…

There is a 25% discount available to students. Click the button below to order at the discounted price.

Order Embracing Paradox, Evolving Language  

Who Should Take This Course?

People who:

• are concerned about the decline in civility, truth, sensemaking, and/or the increase in polarization of current society.
• are frustrated with the exclusionary either/or frameworks (either you’re with us or against us,etc), such as social activists, educators, corporate or nonprofit leaders.
• know that old systems are collapsing but aren’t sure how to build new systems that don’t recreate the problems of the old system.
• want to find radically new ways to be creative with their writing.
• aren’t content to simply use language but also want to reform, reinvent, revise, or reimagine language itself.

If cost is a barrier, we offer scholarships based on income as well as some partial scholarships for people living with serious illness and/or disability or people of color. Please fill out this scholarship application form so that we can find the best way to make the class accessible to you. 

What people are saying about learning with Lisa:

"Lisa has such breadth. She can be talking about Plato one minute and microbiology they next!" --John D.

"I enjoyed the discussions in this class. She has a way of making us feel like we matter."  --Alane W.

"Lisa pushed me out of my comfort zone. I now have a much wider view of things." --Akbar

Where and When Does this Online Course Meet?

This hybrid online course is hosted on the Wet Ink teaching platform with additional live "office hours" hosted via Zoom.

Students will receive an invitation to the Wet Ink platform the day before the course begins. The facilitator will provide information about the times for the Zoom office hours. 

Wet Ink allows participants to post writing, respond to peers, and access resource materials.

About the Facilitator

Lisa Maroski has been an editor, author, playwright, and writing and innovation instructor.  She taught scientists to improve their grant- and article-writing skills, has presented at and organized conferences about consciousness, appeared on many different podcasts, just began to host her own podcast called Language Portals, and has facilitated various sessions and book discussions for the Monterey Friends of C.G. Jung. Lisa is trained in Polarity Management and to host Warm Data Labs.

Website: https://lisamaroski.com/ 

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/lisa-maroski-3867128/