“Dialogue is a conversation between adults the outcome of which is unknown.” I don’t know whether Buber ever wrote this: I couldn’t find a source text for it. But it’s a smart thought, and a hard thing to practice. Enduring social debates range from whether to recognize climate change and take action to mitigate it […]
Throwing our voices in public communications
The ventriloquist is an entertainer whose performance involves throwing their voice so that it appears to come from another source, like a puppet. Think Jeff Dunham. The stage actor is an entertainer whose performance includes conducting conversations with peers on stage but projecting those conversations out into the theater audience. Think Shakespeare. And then there’s […]
From actions to metaphors, language matters
Last year I read Connie Willis’ novel, Doomsday Book, a blend of historical research and character fiction set during 14th Century England’s bout with plague. It’s a terrifically disturbing book because it challenges the reader to engage a period of deep, legitimate, mortal fear and doesn’t offer characters or readers the usual mid-crisis escape hatches. It wasn’t possible for the people of that time […]
May-June Updates
May was an active month on this side of the screen: two major projects meant much less posting here and more offline doing. As always, you can reach and keep up with me on Twitter where I share links and thoughts on leadership, spiritual and relational wisdom, culture, social justice, and politics. This coming week, […]
Speaking as Myself
My friend Teagan hosted a really powerful conversation this weekend about what it means to be an ally to a community and how to speak with its members rather than for or in place of them. [1] I come into the ally/narrative conversation shaped not just by my direct experiences but also by the body of narratives that […]
The Way of Openness
“The Way of Openness” is a short documentary on a conversation series featuring a range of Los Angeles ministers including Hollywood Adventist pastor Ryan J. Bell. The conversations allowed these ministers to reflect on and share stories with each other in the aftermath of California’s Proposition 8 initiative. Prop 8 is under review at the […]