Composing a Further Life

never seen a storm in the desert to really grasp what it meant to watch its wheeling movement. The memory of lines of poetry from years before was suddenly, wildly, alive in front of me.
    So the Middle East began coming back, with the awareness that I had knowledge I needed to pass on. In the summer of 2007, at an international conference in Tallberg, Sweden, a Saudi princess spoke in defense of the status of women in the Islamic world, and I found myself introducing her and facilitating a conversation that had to be guided from attack and defense toward some degree of mutual understanding. At the same time, I was struggling to remember greetings and courtesy phrases of Arabic and seized by a heady excitement of rediscovery.
    Major problems lie ahead as we confront the issues triggered by global climate change. On the one hand, we can expect heart-wrenching humanitarian crises, great numbers of people suddenly homeless or starving or reduced to refugee status. On the other hand, we can expect conflict and warfare when different communities look with envy at their neighbors and fear that their autonomy or access to resources will be reduced as arable land, fossil fuels, and potable water become scarcer. Some of these conflicts are already being expressed in terms of the differences between the Islamic world and the West, and understanding seems to be in short supply. Never before in history has it been so important to affirm that all human beings are kin and part of the interdependent life of the planet.
    At the same time, it has become fashionable to suggest that all religious belief is pernicious. Part of this critique is a response to 9/11 and the particular form taken by anger in the Muslim world. Part of it is a response to the multiple mutually hostile fundamentalisms that flourish on different continents, which are themselves reactions to the threat of change. Still, the major religions of the world are not going to be replaced or disappear, for they have significant value in the lives of believers, and in spite of the horrors of the past, they sometimes have the potential to evoke cooperation and compassion. Judaism, Christianity, and Islam have many beliefs in common, starting from a belief in the Creator’s entry in human affairs and concern for justice and peace, beginning with Abraham, evoking worship and wonder through a process of self-revelation. Knowledge of the range of human belief systems is an essential component of global literacy and not the property of specialists.
    It felt like more than coincidence, then, for me to receive an invitation to go to Arabia in the summer of 2007. I had traveled in several Arab countries but never onto the Arabian Peninsula. The invitation came from Stephen Tolle, whom I had met once in Iran, who wrote:
    I represent the design team for the Society for Organizational Learning’s (SoL) next global forum, which will be held in Muscat, Oman, from April 13-16, 2007. The theme of the forum is: “Bridging the Gulf: Learning across Organizations, Sectors, and Cultures”—our intent is to give people a direct experience of working across cultures, with a particular focus on cross-sectoral work, by sharing perspectives on building a better future. We are expecting about 400 participants from over 40 different countries (about 150 from the Gulf Region and the Middle East—including a contingent of Israelis), representing academic researchers, corporations, and NGOs. The session will offer a unique opportunity to explore common ground and possibilities for collaborative action.
We would like to have you deliver one of the keynote addresses and host a plenary dialogue on cross-cultural learning for the forum. We think that your long experience in the Middle East and deep understanding of its cultures can offer valuable insight and help challenge the forum participants to question some of their strongly held assumptions.

    The Gulf
. The very phrase, of course, is a good example of the differences that divide us, for Arabia lies to the west of this patch of ocean and Iran to the east. Most American geographies speak of the Persian Gulf, which pleases Iran, Arabs call it the Arab Gulf, and some Middle East hands carefully call it the Petroleum Gulf because of the massive oil reserves on both sides and beneath its waters. It was weeks before I grasped the fact that there would be participants from all around the world, because from the first moment I read the invitation, I