Humainologie dialogue my contributions for this evening

I want to give you my contributions ahead of time in writing, so that I won’t be tempted to talk so much this evening. You can take it as an orientation for tonight if it is useful to you for that purpose.

Identity Travel

Whatever I can contribute to our group genius will come from my own way of thinking. My way of thinking is a “map” of the reality I must deal with, and the map is not the territory. It’s just my way of thinking. While some of it may resonate with you, your way of thinking will be different from mine in many ways.

Our ways of thinking are heavily influenced by emotional experiences we have had. Those experiences will be unique to each of us. We are different. That makes things interesting, and often challenging. Especially if we carry our dialogues into the territory of racism, things can become very highly charged emotionally. It’s sort of like walking through a minefield. You can step on an explosive device at any moment.

What do we want to accomplish on this journey? In my way of thinking we want to build group genius, not group stupidity. We want a Calgary dialogue that enhances our wisdom and our empathy. But that’s just my way of thinking. What is yours? Please contribute your wisdom to our dialogues in the weeks ahead.

Here are other considerations I would like to contribute to the dialogue tonight. First, a set of quotes already familiar to you.

· “We must learn to live together as brothers, or we will perish together as fools.” – Martin Luther King, Jr. I prefer the first option.

· “I’ve learned that people will forget what you said, people will forget what you did, but people will never forget how you made them feel.” - Maya Angelou.

· " To change something, build a new model that makes the old model obsolete.” – Buckminster Fuller. We can build a Calgary model of dialogue for healthy global community.

Next I’ll offer a few observations based on my own experience:

· When I have been insulted, bullied, or infuriated, it has almost always been a white male who insulted me, bullied me, or infuriated me. This includes white male racists in the American South where I grew up. I’ve noticed it in other times and places; Adolph Hitler is just one example. When I think back about once when I was bullied in junior high school and a few times when I was insulted as a youngster, it was always white boys who were responsible for the insult or the bullying. I do not forget things like that. As a consequence, I don’t have all that high an opinion of white males when compared to other groups.

· There are many, many people who are depressed, even suicidal, people who do not see the great potential in their own lives. They need support, empathy, compassion, understanding whatever their ethnicity or gender happens to be. That’s what I want to be able to give to people everywhere. I have no idea which ethnic or gender group is most vulnerable to this lack of awareness of their own potential and to depression or even suicide. However, a lot of them are white males. I know. I’ve been there myself.

· I assume most people are working at the limits of their ability to cope with what life is throwing at them. If I can make their burden lighter, great; if not, then the least I can do is to refrain from making their burden any heavier.

In closing, I’ll offer a couple of thoughts about where a dialogue on Identity Travel might take us:

· We might become more aware of our own strengths and weaknesses.

· We might become more aware that a very passionate person speaking to us angrily is nonetheless “speaking their truth” – and that if we are able to listen to their anger with empathy, compassion, patience (see the vulnerability of that person through the steam being produced by their anger), we might be able to help them at a very important passage in their life.

· Therefore, one important outcome of this dialogue might be to build our skills as empathic (or compassionate) listeners.

Thank you for listening.

Arthur