Letter from America

Jessica Grinspan reports on using creative conversation to help bridge political and social divides in her part of the USA.

Hi Peter and Eddy.

Thanks so much for sharing the 7 Habits [of creative conversation] with the world. I've had a cool opportunity to practice and adapt them in a quest that's close to my heart, a personal empathy project that's since blossomed into a beautiful collaboration.

You (rightly) cited AI and climate change as twin forces driving divides and disruptions. So too, especially in the US right now, we have these inimical political divides that are ripping relationships apart.

Since the Nov 5 general election, so many people have severed ties with friends and family, blocked 'the other side' on social media, even painted their nails or hair in their chosen neon hue to symbolize to their tribe that they're 'safe'.

As a democratic socialist, I recoil at the recrudescence of Trumpism as much as my fellow free-thinking friends, but exuding enmity all the time is counter-productive. And by pushing people away who think differently from us, we just get sucked back into that invisible echo chamber, where ignorance breeds fear and then hatred over humanity prevails. 

In that vein, I set out on a mission initially called Mugs with MAGA (which sounded like a fun and pithy name at first but will soon be rebranded, based on my new understanding of what MAGA is and isn't).

The project is an effort to connect with ostensibly opposite-minded people by meeting them where they are, to listen and hold space for their rich and poignant stories.

Basically, I'd become frustrated with all these pundits, perched atop their ivory towers, reducing people to monoliths to support their speculative narratives – narratives that so rarely capture the essence of real individuals with very personal needs and values.

I just wanted to start a rapport with some of these people and practice the Understand First part of creative conversation. But let's just say the project has become much bigger than I first envisioned, and the insights and inspiration from these stories are pretty remarkable.

The next stage of the project will have a few different components (one of which will be the story-sharing in some form); but one big culmination is that this blue-collar ultra-conservative Trump voter and I – who appear nothing alike, at first glance – are trying to organize a unity/peacebuilding event together in our community.  

Anyway, I just wanted to express my appreciation again for all you do, and thought you guys might like to hear a sort of success story from your ever-timely teachings. :)

From conversational cacophony to euphony and beyond...

In solidarity, 

Jessica