While any of us yet live...

[Douglas D. Germann, Sr.]

Kathryn--

 << .       How can I identify similar people in my community? Ask a
question,
 << host those who come to answer it.  I'm starting to feel like a gopher,
who
 << has just popped his head out of his hole and looks around and sees with
 << some surprise and gratification, that he is not alone, that there are
 << other gophers who have also popped their heads out and are looking
around

I love your picture of this little gopher! How have you gone about hosting
these questions and conversations?

Questions do lead to conversation. Buber said something similar to what you
have said: "All real living is dialogue." It seems to me the question is
everything because in our culture we are trained from grade school that
when another asks us a question, we must answer. So we find questions are
ways conversations get started.

I have found that people who are not heard (the weak, the estranged, the
poor, those of an outsider group) seem to be most eager to engage in
generative conversation.

Safety can be found in strangers. There is a book I bought once, and the
whole point is in the title: "The Holy Intimacy of Strangers." I have found
that by asking a deep and even intimate question in a group of strangers,
people are more willing to speak their hearts than among friends and
relatives. Have you noticed anything like this?

Maybe we are more afraid to ask the question than people are to have the
conversation. Maybe, in fact, they are hungry for the conversation.

Dialogue requires being in the present, forgetting the past and the future,
and seeing just who this person in front of you is.

                              :-Doug.
                              Who needs to be heard?

*
*
==========================================================
OSLIST at LISTSERV.BOISESTATE.EDU
------------------------------
To subscribe, unsubscribe, change your options,
view the archives of oslist at listserv.boisestate.edu:
http://listserv.boisestate.edu/archives/oslist.html

To learn about OpenSpaceEmailLists and OSLIST FAQs:
http://www.openspaceworld.org/oslist