Your Legacy

“You cannot get through a single day without having an impact on the world around you. What you do makes a difference, and you have to decide what kind of difference you want to make.” - Jane Goodall

Another good dialogue yesterday and I slept well last night. We’ve been building our group genius around empathy as a life skill. Using Roman Krznaric’s book Empathy: Why It Matters, and How to Get It as a reference, we looked at the six habits of highly empathic people. The fourth habit, practice the craft of conversation, has to do with such things as curiosity about strangers, asking good questions, and radical listening. The rewards of developing this habit are incalculable. Last night I asked the other dialogue artists what made life rewarding for them, and their answers became the highlights of the dialogue for me:

· Bringing joy to others; I want people to find joy in my presence (Laurie)

· Changing the lives of others for the better; I like being told by people that “You have made my life better.” (Brian)

· The experience of working together with another person toward a shared goal or vision. (Heather)

· (A good question from Shinobu: How do I respond to a friend who owns a gun or values the gun culture?)

· (Leila mentioned a project specifically designed to engage people with adversarial views to engage in conversation: Republicans and Democrats were invited to talk with each other for the purpose of better understanding the other’s viewpoint. They became friends in the process and found that it helped them understand where the common ground was.)

I want to put out another question for you to consider for our next dialogue. Whatever you decide as out theme next week, please consider your own response to the following question:

What would you like your legacy, your gift to the world, to be after you have passed away?

This would almost always be something you have accomplished with others. Your response to the question might be something that seems small or something you thought might be epochal, even as you began your involvement. For example, I have played only a supportive role in the potentially epochal Calgary Centre for Global Community / Humainologie initiatives of Salima and in the Folk Tree Lodge / Harmonious Tradition initiatives of Naomi and Mahendra, yet I would like to think of this as part of my gift to the world. As you consider your response, you might think both of things already well underway; and of things you have so far only just begun or even things you have so far only dreamt of. Examples for me of projects already well underway would be the weekly dialogues (which might flourish in Calgary long after I’m gone) and the Calgary Social Capital Society (ditto); and an example of something that is just getting started is the writing partner project. (I am already imagining a book of stories that might arise from this project, to be published every year in Calgary.)

I very much look forward to hearing your responses to the question.

Arthur