November 5, 2008

When someone asks about my favorite things to do, good conversation is pretty much at the tip of the list, along with making and listening to music. I realize sometimes that I what really like is to talk, which I know isn’t necessarily conversation, but I’m working on it. :-)

One conversation I’ve been waiting to have is what matters most to a person I meet about his or her neighborhood and the people and places found there.

A variation on that is a conversation with someone about his or her most important beliefs or opinions that are quite different from my own.

Last night, after Obama became President elect, I was noticing all of the twitter and facebook updates by friends who had supported McCain and were expressing varying degrees of disappointment at the election results. I reflected on how I’d have felt if Obama had lost, and it stirred me to stop waiting to have that conversation. I wanted to contact some of them and ask them to talk about their perceptions and beliefs and what matters to them. I wanted to practice curiosity over explanation and see where the conversation could lead.

I decided, this morning, before I could change my mind, to start with one of those folks I thought would be most receptive to the idea. I invited my friend Cliff to have lunch tomorrow & have a conversation about our respective strong feelings about this year’s election. Cliff is a talented new media pioneer who has nurtured his love of podcasting into a full time business with dozens of different podcast programs being produced, published and enjoyed each week. He is a devout Christian and former Nazarene pastor, as well as a husband and father. We know enough about each other to know our perspectives on faith and politics are quite different. We also like each other enough to have a conversation around what we care about in common, and why it matters so much to each of us.

So… I’ll let you know how that conversation goes.

RBW