People who disagree can be guided to speak to one another respectfully, and lasting bonds between them will be the result.
That’s worth a re-read.
I just light up when I see this. This is how we keep the world from blowing up.
How do you feel when you speak, or want to speak, but you don't trust you'll be heard?
Does that have anything to do with the very-loud-ness of current politics?
This 60 Minutes episode demonstrates that a group of people who have vehement disagreements with one another, and who probably will disagree for the rest of their lives, can be guided to sit down around a table and conduct a more-or-less civil conversation. And that doing so creates lasting bonds between them.
I know for myself that, if I do find myself shouting, when I'm finally heard, I'll stop shouting. When I stop shouting, I can hear and I can listen. When I listen, I'll also feel heard and respected. Now we've connected, and we will then naturally try to stay connected.
What could possibly be wrong with any of that, at any level of human interaction?
How do I be involved in something like community or neighborhood conversation groups that, maybe, get some local coverage - get people actually talking with one another, and respectfully - about whatever it is - and advertising and modeling to others a functioning civility and willingness to listen while disagreeing - treating everyone at the table as a person just like you and me?
I want that way of relating to one another to spread like dandelion and milkweed on the wind.
So, okay, that's a flight of ideas. I'm not sure how to make something of that size really happen in the concrete world. I have one idea on what they could look like, from watching this particular 60 Minutes installment.
So, I guess I’ll start by finding out if someone else is already doing this locally, near me or somewhere else in the country. Or just directly contact Oprah Winfrey and stop wishing. What the hell do I have to lose?