Pangea Day 2008 - an inspiring note from a Bluesponge guest
One of our visitors to Bluesponge for this year’s wonderful Pangea Day wrote us a kind letter, which he was happy for us to post on our blog. A note from Dwight Smith, our guest blogger….
I want to sincerely thank the Bluesponge team for generously making your beautiful space available to those wanting to participate as a group in Pangea Day on May 10th last. I was curious as to what would motivate a communications firm to associate itself with an event such as Pangea Day. I was deeply impressed that the motivation behind opening Bluesponge to the public appeared to be a genuine desire to participate in a meaningful event for its own merits with no ulterior motives or concern as to how this might reflect on your studio’s reputation.
It is refreshing to find a place like Bluesponge that gives a very real impression of being devoted to the true spirit of communication, meaning dialogue in the widest and fullest sense. In your mission statement I was particularly impressed by the: “We are ardent globalisers––of people not trade––and we always make sure there are more ethnicities in our team than members. We fear conformity.” Contained in that statement is a very pertinent reference to the existence of a newer kind of global citizen, one whose genealogy and culture transcends boundaries and nations and reflects a consciousness that is capable of embracing the highest realities of what it means to be globally united. That you are not conforming is self-evident!
In my own experience I have found one of the most difficult challenges in acting within a world, especially when part of that activity involves commerce and trade, (as just about any activity does today,) is that of finding a balance between secular and spiritual concerns. For the most part, we are too easily convinced that spiritual concerns have no business (pun intended!) in the secular affairs of our world; that it is something we must do on our own at night or on the weekend, privately and discretely. I disagree and suspect that Bluesponge management might do too. What I felt at Bluesponge, albeit only a glimpse, is that there exists a true desire on the part of the owners and the team to inculcate meaningful values into what it is that you do not only as professionals, but as human beings. For that, and for whatever degree my presumptions are true, I congratulate you and encourage you to maintain your course no matter what setbacks may occur along the way. It makes me think of one of my favourite writers, Pierre Teilhard de Chardin in his book “The Divine Milieu” when he wrote to a friend concerning that friend’s concern as a successful businessman on how to harmonize detachment and attachment so that they complement one another.
“You are still having some difficulty in justifying to yourself the euphoria of a soul immersed in ‘business.’ I must point out to you that the really important thing is that you are actually experiencing that feeling of well-being. … How, you ask, can the success of a commercial enterprise bring with it moral progress? And I answer, in this way, that since everything in the world follows the road to unification, the spiritual success of the universe is bound up with the correct functioning of every zone of that universe and particularly with the release of every possible energy in it. Because your enterprise (which I take to be legitimate [sic]) is going well, a little more health is being spread in the human mass, and in consequence a little more liberty to act, to think, and to love… Because you are doing the best you can (though you may sometimes fail) you are forming your own self within the world, and you are helping the world to form itself around you.”
I understand that given my very brief encounter with Bluesponge that I am taking liberties with such a long-winded response but I was genuinely moved by your generosity and what it was that appeared to motivate it, so please consider this an awkward attempt on my part to show my heartfelt appreciation.
Dwight Smith
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