November 9, 2008

Listen to the conversation

Because I have been waiting to have these very kinds of conversations and stalling for any number of reasons, I posted about my wish to have more conversations that matter the other day with the question: “What is the Conversation you’ve been waiting to have?”

Thursday at lunch was conversation #1 for me, with friend and conservative voter, Cliff Ravenscraft. We met for the purpose of having a conversation about what matters to each of us, and to explore the common beliefs, life views and insights we suspect we share, but haven’t much explored…

It was good. It was long, too. About 2 hours, all recorded on his field recorder for podcasting. That’s his profession (visit www.gspn.tv to learn about his excellent and pioneering work) and later that night, the entire lunch conversation was posted online and made available to the thousands of listeners who download his shows every day.

Here’s a link to the audio recording. I’m appreciative of the comments that have been posted on his site about the podcast by some of those GSPN members who’ve taken the time to listen to our long conversation.

So, it was a planned way to start off my wish for Common Conversations, which made it a little less scary to me as a first outing. I also knew Cliff has recorded lunch conversations as possible podcasts before, and that is something I want to do, so the plan to record it was easily achieved. I was pretty sure it would be friendly, as well, because even though I’ve known Cliff less than a year, I know enough to hold him in high regard as a thoughtful and compassionate man, who has experienced a lot of his own shifting in his faith and spiritual life.

I also expected that he’d have strong personal reasons for supporting Senator McCain and Governor Palin and for NOT supporting Senators Obama and Biden, and I wanted to hear him talk about that, and to listen with an open and appreciative heart, so that some of my natural filtering processes could be suspended in listening with curiosity.

We talked about filters, labels, etc., and one reflection I have from the conversation is that the filters we all have in place must be pretty powerful. It became clear to each of us, I think, that very different things stood out to us in our respective listening to the candidates, and what we actually came away hearing, in some cases, seems so different that one wonders if we heard the same person, let alone the same speeches. The practice of the Six Conversations can help me be more aware of my own filters and, like any mindfulness practice, weaken their unconscious effects on my listening and responses by simply observing their existence.

I look forward to the next conversations and am contacting people I’d like to invite to share in them. I would be glad to hear from anyone who has their own experiences to share or who would like to sit down with me sometime for a Common Conversation of our own.

It doesn’t have to take 2 hours, by the way...   :-)