Project Vision 21

Along with an open mind and heart, the other key attitude to connecting with the future (that is, with our best possible future version) is the open hand, as taught by Dr. Otto Scharmer of MIT, who suggests that “open hand” is a metaphor that represents the willingness both to change our perspective and to personal transformation.
 

That approach came to mind recently when I heard a renowned professor expressing that “you cannot receive help with closed hands,” in reference to the difficulties that professor faces when trying to guide and advise his own students to progress in their studies and in life.
 

Obviously, this situation of people with “closed hands”, that is, fists, is observed not only in universities but in practically all areas of life.
 

For example, as a volunteer at a food bank for many years, I have seen people asking for help and, when they receive it, they immediately reject it and even throw it in the trash in full view of the person who gave them the help. even when the food provided was top quality and culturally appropriate.
 

And I recently spoke with a newly arrived immigrant who contacted a community organization where I volunteer. The man in question indicated that he needed “urgent help” for himself and his family. His ready-made list included “a house, a new car, a full-time job, and paid college.”
 

This man, as the one referenced above, also rejected the help offered to him, stating that he “had the right” to receive “much more” than just shelter, food and public transportation passes.
 

You can’t receive help with a closed hand because the fist represents not only the closed hand, that is, the hand that does not accept, but also the closed heart, that is, the lack of gratitude to both the helper and the help provided. And it also represents closed-mindedness, that is, the attitude of “If it's not exactly what I want, then it's no help at all.”
 

I consider that it could be argued that the closed hand, in all its multiple expressions (aggressive or passive, armed or unarmed) also expresses a rejection of dialogue by representing through a fist (metaphorical or real) the obsessive attachment to a single reality, to only one possibility and, if there is a problem, to a single solution.
 

And that fist seems to tighten more and more until it becomes a tool of violence, real or symbolic, not to express any struggle for freedom or liberation, but with the goal of imposing a way of thinking considered the only or the best one. Therefore, the fist (the closed hand) is inseparable from the closed mind and the hardened heart.
 

Despite this new and constant reality of closed hands, expanding our consciousness (open mind), clarifying our emotions (open heart) and activating our will (open hands) is more necessary than ever to create a new future, or at least to have the chance of helping other to face whatever future is now emerging.