Have you voted today?

Or maybe you voted early?

I hope so--it's our primary superpower in this country, right?

I'm listening to Brené Brown interview  Anand Giridharadas about his most recent book The Persuaders, and whoosh! I started listening to it as I walked to the local high school to vote. I like to vote in person when I can to feel part of the community. Of course I passed enough political endorsement signs for "the other guys" that I was not feeling very much a part of the community at all by the time I arrived. Ugh. So, I was glad to have my girl Brené (she doesn't know, but we're quite good friends. :D) in my ear.

It's a really interesting interview--surprisingly slow-paced, but perhaps that helps process the information to make it my own. Among the things that have grabbed me by the throat in this are first the idea those "Russian bots" we've heard so much about in the last 6+ years went after us by using our own building disdain and disgust that are building between us and second the idea about creating on-ramps to the super-highway of understanding by meeting people where they are.

Whoosh!

The two ideas really work together--creating those on-ramps by meeting people where they are and giving them access to the journey to reach desired destinations will help us avoid feeling disdain and disgust with our fellow humans.

They further talk about not being able to replace someone's beliefs, but you can displace them by helping them walk around the table to see the world--and themselves--from different perspectives. 

It actually requires our recognizing others as not-unlike-ourselves to have compassion and working to understand about where they are and where we are and how do we come to understand, so we can all build a sense of belonging.

What feels better than a sense of belonging?

What does it feel like to you?

How do you create a space where others feel welcome and like they belong?

How do meaning and persuasion contribute to and result from belonging?