Friday, October 15, 2021
Can You Canoe?
Peter Tarlton
Half believe This and Half believe That
While judgmental earplugs block all listening
To grow divisions over time and topics, to feel
Nothing is held in common, and ask “Any way Home?”
Free societies promise each identity the right to be Yet expect curiosity about needs and possibilities Especially solutions to improve shared community, Since living as an island may be lonely, or risky.
Perhaps we start conversations with some questions: What experiences helped you to form your values?
What cues might make you curious about our differences? Can you hold the possibility of multiple realities? What parts of my ideas might touch vulnerabilities in you? Can you be intensely authentic, without hurting others?
How do you stay aware of your emotional responses?
Might you feel safer if you sense commonality, or consensus?
Or, have you ever assembled puzzles with other people? To see how pieces fit, or don’t, to build the image,
Like our values and needs, perspectives and skills.
They may vibrate with ideas for solutions to problems, Yet each one of us knows that challenges take time
For heads, hands and hearts to learn how to collaborate, To keep experimenting until most can be satisfied,
As a sense of We quietly emerges from individual efforts.
What if we imagine possible answers to complex issues?
Might we design fair investment returns for drug research
With affordability for low incomes after a period of years?
Could we plan phased reductions to carbon fuel and increases in Alternative energy, to avoid supply and economic disruptions? Could we recruit mentors to help non-high school graduates learn To love gaining new skills on-line, at any time in their lives. Sharing ideas might improve outcomes for all participants.
In similar ways, we can imagine wetlands, noisily occupied With rafts of mallard ducks, each enjoying their fill,
To rise, land and paddle as a massive quacking group, while Their collective energies sustain their dynamic patterns.
Or, you could be in the bow of a canoe, and I in the stern, to either Stroke water in opposition, or move forward with rhythmic unison, Navigating lakes and rivers through sun or wind or rain,
To thrive in changing combinations of conditions and scenery.
Is it possible to enjoy everything, together? I can! Canoe?
Peter W Tarlton October11, 2021 New Castle, NH