Every Question Has An Answer

Are we asking the right ones?

I often find myself searching for meaningful conversation threads in my spare time. Do you? Do you participate or just observe in responding to the tough questions? Are you looking for insight or to challenge your current understanding? I seek a life of meaning, of interaction, of engagement toward a greater good. I believe many do as well.

I don't know about you, but I'm perplexed when it comes to the simpler questions that seem to go unasked and yet appear to be obvious, just begging for someone to speak up and risk the barrage of potential comments, both pro and con, in order to just get a conversation going. It seems we shy away from the tougher subjects, like politics and religion, and hope that someone else will present them or we just acquiesce to the lack of meaningfulness in our lives.

Social media has given us the opportunity to do all the above. It brings opportunity for the bias and prejudice as well as the impartial or progressive considerations in response. Is there any sense to it all? If there is, can we make sense common? As corny as that may sound, just consider the implications of sharing in the process of discovering or revealing what we find to be true regarding the notion of meaningful relationships.

I was engaged by a FB post from Nora Bateson about asking the tough questions. Who the heck is she? Here's a short piece that encapsulates who she is and what she does...

Perhaps leaping to yet another level of conversation in building relationships; taking action in a democracy, she posed these questions:

Does the political landscape in so-called democratic countries represent the will of the people? Or has the thinking of society been hijacked into controversies and binaries that serve other institutions?

It put me on pause. I pondered. I wondered. I was saddened by the obvious answer that emerged, acknowledging the latter question to be a reality based on observation at the risk of subjectivity. Binaries are polarities of choice in this instance, that which we often face in political environments with no room for negotiation toward making sense common. I believe anything is possible with effort and intention to work together.

I certainly don't have all the answers, or even some of them. I feel bereft in the face of finding commonality in such a diverse country that seems to be so divided in ideologies. Again I pause, I ponder and I wonder. If we could make sense common, how would the process look? What can we, as a citizenry united toward a better future for all, create a system that brings us together as a United States of America instead of continuing the polarization because of ethnicity, gender, politics, religion or ideology?

What are your thoughts? What is on your mind now? Are you engaged? Could you be engaged further? How? What would it take? Thanks for your attention and time.

Below is a presentation I first gave to a gathering of community activists in Valparaiso, Chile in 2001. Perhaps it can add substance to your next endeavor.