Common Ground Interviews

We are embarking with a series of interviews to share our common humanity that lies beneath our many differences. I am interested in increasing all our chances of being heard and understood, including the non-human world.

After the first interview, I found myself pulling out an old book from my shelf called, “Neither Wolf nor Dog”. Within minutes of reading I found the following summary of words:

“We can like each other, hate each other, feel pity for each other, love each other. But always, somewhere beneath the surface of our personal encounters, this cultural memory is rumbling. Tragedies have taken place on our land, and even though it may not have taken place on our watch, we are its inheritors, and the earth remembers.” (Kent Nerburn 2002)

These series of interviews search for common meaning, common understanding and common redemption. It doesn’t matter if we are on opposite sides. We aim to reach across our differences and hold each other in common embrace.

“We stand, strong and adamant, within the confines of our own values and self-understandings, but we reach out and care for each other”. (ibid)

Let’s not distort the reality of people we really care about and turn them into a reflection of our own needs. Let’s be unashamedly who we are and trust that those who see us will honour what they see, and treat it with gentleness and respect. Let’s realise that the world we enter is not ours to reduce to the size and shape of our understanding.