I'm thinking some more about what really excited me at the forum I attended last week at the Process Work Institute in Portland. Usually in a discussion, the only points of view represented are the views of the participants. So if my church (this is a true story) has a discussion about getting more races represented in the church and the only people having the discussion are Euro-americans, then the only point of view we hear is the Euro-american one. That's how we usually discuss things. Arnold Mindell, founder of PWI, separates out the points of view as having their own value. If I understand him correctly, many points of view exist in any conversation, whether there are people to speak them or not. If no one is there to speak them, he calls them the ghost point of view. To really understand a topic thoroughly, ALL points of view must be heard.
In the forum last week, one woman stood up and spoke for the billionaires, since we had no billionaires attending the forum. In a discussion about economics, she thought that the billionaires would have a view. Especially since some of us were trashing them from our point of view! She was not attacked. Everyone understood the valuable function she played. Others joined her who could identify in some way with her point of view.
The result? Much more compassion and a recognition that solutions are not simple. The forum was practice for a group of students, so we only met for a couple hours. I believe that if we could meet over several days with this sort of listening and empathizing with a variety of view points, we would reach real depth in our conversation and a glimmer of what a real solution might actually look like.
No comments:
Post a Comment