Guest Post: Other Conversations

[ Guest Post by Redhead in Rapid ]

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As a child I knew the world in a very particular manner. I knew that it snowed before Christmas, that bugs were annoying, that the Lakers were magical, and that GI Joes were the best. My world was the world. How I saw it, is how it was. Like most children, this great, common fallacy slowly disintegrated as I grew up. I realized to my great disappointment that the world did not revolve around me. As an adult I still struggle with this harsh reality. Not that the world doesn’t revolve around me (my daughter reminds me of that everyday) but that other conversations are happening right next door.

It is easy to think that what I find important is what others find important—that what I deem essential shapes the world. This was most apparent to me when I lived in Washington DC. The “beltway” mentality is real and alive when you caught up in the minutia of Congress and the ju-jitsu of politics. Politicians and pundits fall for this fallacy all the time. Even when they deride the beltway they still agree that politics and policy is what matters. But other conversations are happening—all around.

Here’s one example—a many-way conversation that includes poets, thinkers, God, and trees: http://www.gospelofthetrees.net/home
Here’s another very different conversation: http://www.newstatesman.com/200202250050