Thanks, Jennifer, for a great Top 10 About Collaboration.
Collaboration has been on my mind a lot too. In fact, I just finished watching a fascinating special on TV about Mileva Maric, first wife of Albert Einstein.
I learned that Albert Einstein and Mileva produced a schizophrenic son who was eventually responsible for Mileva's nervous breakdown, subsequent multiple strokes and death. And worse, Albert was a cheating bastard who gave his nobel peace prize money to Mileva in return for a divorce and left Mileva to care for their sick son for years by herself.
What captured my attention just as much was the apparent controversy over whether Einstein's paper on the theory of relativity was actually written -- and the idea collaborated on -- with Mileva. A scholar claims that an original Russian manuscript references the paper's authors as "Einstein-Maric," but some scholars vehemently argue against that notion. What's the controversy; what's so hard to comprehend? Collaboration happens.
It's not hard to imagine considering Maric was a physicist herself, and was partnered intimately and professionally (they wrote about five papers together) with arguably the greatest mind of the millennium...what a platform! Collaboration happens!
Later in the episode, a historian explains that there is a German saying that describes Mileva as an oyster and Einstein the pearl--the grain of sand needs the oyster to become a pearl, but then after it's a pearl, it doesn't need the oyster anymore.
But I think that it's not Einstein that's the pearl, but instead the theory of relativity itself. All three needed each other.
So, I see a metaphor: pearls as a symbol of collaboration. Out of two entities emerges a rare jewel, hard to describe, scientifically proven, cultured even. Luminescent, coveted, harvested. Worn, tested, meaningful. Connected.
Martha, that was exquisite insight. Your idea of the pearl as a symbol fits perfectly. I also found the information about Einstein fascinating. What would be so wrong I wonder, with sharing a theory with another, does it make Einstein less important? Why in this culture do we need so much credit? Why don't we create for the sake of creation? What is up with self-importance.
I read a bit on Emerson this week. He contributed more to our American Culture than we think. In his readings you get a clear idea of the importance of the individual.
Pauls thoughts:
Emerson influenced the American character by creating a rebel. That man should not seek things outside himself in order to make him whole. He believed each person has in her what it takes to be whole. Basically, this means that no one needs help, and that it is "weak" especially for a man, to admit he needs help, that he can't "fix it" himself. So the country, in turn, tries to fix everything itself, without approval say, from the United Nations. And the American character, means, I can do it instead of, We can do it.
In Africa, the tribe is the we, and each member is an I. The key is to give each member the sense of his own identity and individuality, but
at the same time, make him understand he is part of a group, and that the identity must somehow not get in the way of the functioning of the
group.