Humainologie creative dialogue Wednesday June 23 Brainstorming Stonewalls

“To effectively communicate, we must realize that we are all different in the way we perceive the world and use this understanding as a guide to our communication with others.” – Tony Robbins

“Make sure to communicate your idea quickly and keep it straight to the point.” – Paul Bailey

At the dialogue event last night, Christina led us through a meditation exercise followed by a story writing exercise. Each of the two components surprised me. I came up with an almost irresistible idea for a short story during the story writing exercise. One or two of the participants might take up the practice of writing stories because of that experience last night.

For our topic next Wednesday June 23, I’ll suggest Brainstorming Stonewalls. In essence this will be about taking down the barriers to good communication, so that our communities can thrive. Your mission - should you choose to accept it - will be to come up with at least one good idea for how to do this. How can our dialogue group generate vibrant conversations among people with diverse, even antagonistic, views? How can we enhance our ability to talk with strangers?

Our Dialogue and Democracy Game is designed to do exactly that. After the dialogue event last night, Zenia and I stayed on Zoom for the Games Committee meeting, and Carl Allen also participated, staying up way past his bedtime to do so. We hope to establish the Dialogue and Democracy Game in Calgary beginning next year during Empathy Week. I have had an excellent Zoom meeting with Conservative MP Mike Lake, who is passionate about the importance of civility in politics. He has indicated his support for our project and agreed to facilitate one of our dialogues in the near future.

Zenia recently brought our committee’s attention to a ten-minute presentation on how to transcend the Left vs. Right debate. The ideas of the speaker can be very useful for our purposes. Here is a link to the video by Daniel Schmactenberger.

How to Make Sense of the LEFT VS. RIGHT Debate | Daniel Schmachtenberger - YouTube

Writing stories for the Humainologie Short Story Festival this year can also help us improve creative communication among people with very different points of view. Writing short stories can be used to promote imaginative conversations for a better future. How could this happen? That’s my good question for you for next Wednesday.

Talk soon. Toot sweet,

Arthur