What good does it do
to assume everyone is
lying?
Rather, open our minds
to
trust, but verify
(unless, of course, what they
say
doesn’t hold water)
Encourage creative
thinking
by challenging with demand
for
well thought out report
exploring
all the imaginable
opposing arguments
possible side effects and
results,
more solidly define the
details
to refine ideas into
plans.
Superficial niceties don’t dissolve
feuds
We need true communication – not
what
we assume
I tell you me; you tell me you –
honestly
that we may grow to share our greater
truth
Scapegoats, we who are
dismissed
and hated to assuage the
guilt
of our tormentors,
Feel the significance, the heroic
glory
of our gift to those
frightened,
crippled hordes.
Speak civilly to me
Make your case
Express devout beliefs
--
I am fascinated, bemused
to hear your truth
to widen my experience in
empathy,
in imagining you.
Speak harshly,
sarcastically,
dripping disrespect --
I can not hear you
through
the barrier of your barbed
wire
attitude you use to keep you
safe
from the reality of my
humanity.
Success to me is figuring how to
do
what I feel impelled to
Financial success means enough
income
to pay the bills for a modest modern
living
to keep my body comfortable
enough
that discomfort doesn’t
impinge
on my true life, within my
mind.
No need to forgive
Accept
Move forward.
We tend to hot messiness
because life happens
show us we have no
control
Why does no one seem to speak of
listening
to our partisan
relatives?
I see advice to dismiss or try to
impress them
with our better
knowledge.
The suggestion is to disrespect
their
self-expression
which seems to me would give greater
reason
to dig in against such
offense.
Could we make the space to
listen,
to ask about their felt
experiences,
why they chose to believe their
party’s lines,
to understand, to engage with
people
in our lives, to maybe learn
underlying
stories, to get beyond our entrenched
sides,
and be real?
We need civility
to share information
Throwing facts across a
bow
is not communication
11/26-29/19
