Breaking Bread, Breaking Barriers
Listening First
This is a project that I have been working on and trialing, about listening, that I hope various communities will appreciate and perhaps emulate. This is not a project about agreement. It’s not about converting others of a particular position. This is about the kind of listening that does not ask for anything in return, except to be seen.
The world is obsessed with defensiveness, debate, and division. We have a choice to get off that ride and do something radical: to sit not across from one another, but to sit NEXT to each other as we share a meal and listen with true intent and care. Not to win with our view, but to understand and to be vulnerable.
The first step toward peace in our community is not agreement. It is observing and understanding our mutual needs.
The objective here is for people from wildly different backgrounds to come together not as opponents, but as humans. We may never share the exact same views, but what we do share matters: We all eat. We all bleed. We all love. We all fear. If we can remember those areas first, we can begin to remember what connects us and our communities.
We can all begin and contribute to this or similar community projects. With just one shared meal, one conversation, and the very courageous act of listening first.
If you would like to learn more or have interest in participating in some of the upcoming meals that I have been able to help facilitate, please contact me.