Reflections

From the first days of this inquiry I found myself following the advice we give to clients and students - searching for a metaphor that seemed to accurately reflect the spirit of this ‘thing’ we were trying to get our heads around. I tried and discarded a few ideas - a public library (too sequential and too static), and a mirror (too fixed and too shallow).

One morning I stumbled across the metaphor of the reflecting pool - a deep (but not bottomless) pool of data into which users could look to see what they could see about our community. This felt like a perfect metaphor. Perhaps it was.

The metaphor started to teach me from the first moment I shared it. I enthusiastically extroverted the idea to David who reflected for a split second and said, “Narcissus?”

I immediately responded, “No, just a reflecting pool. Those who look into the pool will see whatever it is that they are looking for.”

A few short minutes later Kevin Scribner stopped by for an update. Again, with even more enthusiasm I shared my metaphor - this time extending it with an explanation about how this source could be a continually refreshed pool - not stagnant, polluted, or suffering from summer algae bloom and how users could draw data out without diminishing the source. I loved my metaphor even more this time.

Funny thing - The first words out of his mouth were, “Like Narcissus?”

Again, I explained that the metaphor was just a reflecting pool - which, by its nature is neutral. If someone approached the reflecting pool already in love with their reflection, they would find much that would reinforce that belief.

For me, the metaphor ‘stuck’. Like stepping on a piece of used chewing gum on a hot day, I couldn’t scrape it off.

On Thursday evening I remembered that metaphor as I reflected on the afternoon’s session, which we had designed to be a means by which the assembled community could look into our inquiry, and report back what they saw there.

I learned all too well that the metaphor that found me for this project continued to reflect true.

Will a reflecting pool of data about the community be built? Only time will tell.

What will it reflect back and how will those arrayed around that source interpret what they find? Will it be another source of division and unhealthy competition or will it provide the insight by which everyone of us and each of our organizations becomes the best we can be? Or will the initial reactions to my metaphor find themselves disturbingly prescient?

Only time will tell.