Thursday Thinking - Achieving Disagreement

Popular culture, politics, and religion so often seem trapped in a futile "us-them" way of thinking. People with competing beliefs and values are too busy maneuvering, pushing, and fighting for their own agendas to actually listen to each other. They are ready to denounce and caricature those who oppose their own views, but seemingly uninterested in understanding their opponents, much less getting to know them or care about them. They are quick to speak and slow to listen. Rarely will they grant that the opposition has a fair point or a just concern. Instead of having an honest disagreement and moving forward, they have a dismissive denial that makes it impossible for anything to progress beyond a shouting match.

I'm not sure where the term "achieving disagreement" first emerged, but it seems to be a helpful concept for people who are trying to move beyond the us-them trap. I first heard the expression on the American Public Media program, On Being, hosted by Krista Tippett. The program was about the future of marriage and was part of a series called "The Civil Conversations Project."

"Achieving Disagreement" is a phrase that describes what happens when those with opposing views actually listen to the other side, and listen attentively and respectfully enough to actually understand what the other is feeling, saying, and believing. It's a way of listening so thoroughly that each party is able to restate the position of the other in a way the other acknowledges to be accurate. The idea is that honest disagreement requires genuine understanding. I would add that having a respect and care for the other makes "achieving disagreement" all the better.

This week two people with very divergent values and beliefs have gone public with their own story of "achieving disagreement." Gay activist, Shane Windmeyer, and Chilck-Fil-A CEO, Dan Cathy, have forged a friendship even though they were first swept together in a national media culture war firestorm. A few days ago, the Huffington Post published a piece by Shane titled, Dan and Me: My Coming Out as a Friend of Dan Cathy and Chick-Fil-A. I strongly suggest that you read every word.

Their story is helpful and hopeful, but it will likely not get as much press as the original Chick-Fi-Asco that blew up a year ago. I know that sounds pessimistic, but it seems that trouble always gets more viewers than a truce. Deep down, though, I must not really be a pessimist because I continue to hope for a day when a caring, honest, and humble approach to disagreements can be and will be recognized for the great achievement it is.

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If achieving disagreement sounds like something you would like to be able to do, you might want to check out my previous post, The Importance of Listening, which includes a helpful seven-minute video with insights from philosopher Jacob Needleman.

Wednesday Words - White Eyes

White-Eyes

In winter
    all the singing is in
         the tops of the trees
             where the wind-bird

with its white eyes
    shoves and pushes
         among the branches.
             Like any of us

he wants to go to sleep,
    but he's restless—
         he has an idea,
             and slowly it unfolds

from under his beating wings
    as long as he stays awake.
         But his big, round music, after all,
             is too breathy to last.

So, it's over.
    In the pine-crown
         he makes his nest,
             he's done all he can.

I don't know the name of this bird,
    I only imagine his glittering beak
         tucked in a white wing
             while the clouds—

which he has summoned
    from the north—
         which he has taught
             to be mild, and silent—

thicken, and begin to fall
    into the world below
         like stars, or the feathers
               of some unimaginable bird

that loves us,
    that is asleep now, and silent—
         that has turned itself
             into snow.


"White Eyes" by Mary Oliver,
© Copyright 2002 by Mary Oliver.

Tuesday Tome - Book Club Tonight (Session 2)

Simply Jesus by N. T. Wright is the current selection for my book club at Valley Christian Church. Our second session is tonight, Tuesday, January 29, 7:00pm. We'll be discussing Chapters 8 through 12. You can get all the details about this book club HERE.

No registration is required, but I would like to hear from you if you're planning to be there. If you have any questions, click here to send me an email.

From the Book Description:
“Jesus—the Jesus we might discover if we really looked,” explains Wright, “is larger, more disturbing, more urgent than we had ever imagined. We have successfully managed to hide behind other questions and to avoid the huge, world-shaking challenge of Jesus’s central claim and achievement. ...As the church faces the many challenges of the twenty-first century, Wright has presented a vision of Jesus that more than meets them. 

Monday Music - Start All Over Again

The Cactus Blossoms are back in the saddle again at the Turf Club, Mondays, 7:00-10:00pm. Did you know that tapping your toe to country swing is a great way to beat the winter blues? Well, then it's time you learned!

Sunday Supplication - Make Us a Blessing

O Lord, help us to answer the call of our Savior Jesus Christ. Help us to seriously and readily seek your will for our lives. Help us, by our words and actions, to proclaim the Good News of Jesus to all people. Help us and the world around us to recognize the salvation he brings.

Thank you for the forgiveness and renewal you have given to us through Christ Jesus.  Help us to extend forgiveness to each other. And help us grow into a redemptive and healing community. Help us to have a saving and healing impact on the world around us.

O God, life in this world is more than we can face on our own. Help us to navigate our way through the many challenges and conflicts. Help us to live with integrity and care toward others in authentic Christian fellowship. Help our Valley community to be an instrument of your grace, your truth, and your peace. Make us a blessing to the world around us.

Through Christ, we pray. Amen.

Saturday Smile - Bad Lip-Syncing

Thanks to the creative minds and crack research at Bad Lip Reading, we can all finally rest assured knowing that Beyonce was definitely NOT lip-syncing at the inauguration. See the evidence for yourself!

Friday Food - FAGE Greek Yogurt

This is my favorite all-purpose Greek yogurt. I love it plain. I love it on potatoes. I love it with fresh fruit. I love it in tacos and burritos. I love it in chili. It goes almost anywhere I might use sour cream, or whipped cream, or cheese. It has a fantastic taste and texture. It goes with sweet or savory. Give it a try.

Thursday Thinking - What It Means to Search

Last week on Marketplace Morning, there was an insightful essay by Nicholas Carr on how "the digital age has changed what it means to search." Carr is the author of The Shallows: What the Internet Is Doing to Our Brains.

Carr offers some very perceptive analysis and I encourage you to listen to it. Here is an excerpt from the transcript to pique your interest:

These days, Google's search engine doesn’t push us outward so much as turn us inward. It gives us information that fits the pattern of behavior and thinking we’ve displayed in the past. It reinforces our biases rather than challenging them, and subverts the act of searching in its most meaningful sense.

There was a time when search engines opened new vistas for us. Now, they hold up a mirror to us, giving us back a reflection of ourselves. Search has become a tool for self-absorption. 

Wednesday Words - Keep Cold!

Good-bye, and Keep Cold
By Robert Frost

This saying good-bye on the edge of the dark
And cold to an orchard so young in the bark
Reminds me of all that can happen to harm
An orchard away at the end of the farm
All winter, cut off by a hill from the house.
I don't want it girdled by rabbit and mouse,
I don't want it dreamily nibbled for browse
By deer, and I don't want it budded by grouse.
(If certain it wouldn't be idle to call
I'd summon grouse, rabbit, and deer to the wall
And warn them away with a stick for a gun.)
I don't want it stirred by the heat of the sun.
(We made it secure against being, I hope,
By setting it out on a northerly slope.)
No orchard's the worse for the wintriest storm;
But one thing about it, it mustn't get warm.
"How often already you've had to be told,
Keep cold, young orchard. Good-bye and keep cold.
Dread fifty above more than fifty below."
I have to be gone for a season or so.
My business awhile is with different trees,
Less carefully nourished, less fruitful than these,
And such as is done to their wood with an axe—
Maples and birches and tamaracks.
I wish I could promise to lie in the night
And think of an orchard's arboreal plight
When slowly (and nobody comes with a light)
Its heart sinks lower under the sod.
But something has to be left to God.

Tuesday Tome - North Country

North Country: The Making of Minnesota by Mary Lethert Wingerd is a beautiful book I've been living with for a few weeks, and will continue to live with for a few months. It's a lot to take in, so I'm taking it nice and slow. Most days I read somewhere between three to ten pages. I'm currently finishing up the second chapter which begins with this paragraph:

As the eighteenth century dawned, the Upper Mississippi and the western Great Lakes were beyond the edge of European empires. Though geographers in London, Paris, and Madrid might redraw their maps of North America to reflect the spoils of European wars, in reality the Dakotas and Ojibwes were the masters of the land that would become Minnesota. Europeans who ventured into Indian country to reap the riches of its furs trod carefully on this alien soil. Their small parties of adventurers had no real power in the midst of thousands of Native people; moreover, they were weeks, if not months, away from their provisioning points. Survival itself, let alone success, depended on the goodwill of Indian trading partners. Thus, of necessity, traders schooled themselves in Native customs and , living among the Indians, adopted many of their ways.

I can't say enough about the quality of this book. Not only is it well-written and beautifully illustrated, but the binding, format, and paper quality are all first rate. This is a book made to enjoy and reference for years to come.

Wingerd's approach to the narrative is nuanced and thoughtful with a writing style that is both engaging and unassuming. The complexities of Minnesota history have often been obscured by romanticized legends, traditions, and stories told from the ethnocentric perspective of European settlers. Wingerd goes deeper to reveal the precolonial indigenous culture, their earliest contact with the French and the British, and the ensuing intricacies of economics, fur trade, treaties, intermarriage, cultural exchange, and politics.

Wingerd's text is accompanied by one-hundred-forty-one plates of illustrations, photos, maps, and works of art. Most of the illustration pages are printed in color on glossy high-quality paper. These illustrations, chosen and captioned by Kirsten Delegard, really make the book come alive as they depict the places, people, and events described in the narrative.

This book should be in the library of anyone who wants to know and understand Minnesota history. I'm very glad to have finally added it to mine.

Monday Music - Pre-Order Leagues Now

Coming soon! Just a little over one week (January 29, 2013) until the release of You Belong Here, the first full-length album from Leagues.

Leagues is comprised of Tyler Burkum (guitar and vocals), Thad Cockrell (lead vocals), and Jeremy Lutito (drums). I've embedded another new track below. Give it a listen.

Visit the Leagues website, if you like what you hear, pre-order their new CD.

Sunday Supplication - Shining Brightly

Almighty God, your Son, Jesus, is the true light than enlightens all people.

Help your church to be illuminated by your Word and Spirit. Help us to shine so brightly with the radiance of Christ's glory that he is known, worshiped, and obeyed to the ends of the earth.

Forgive us our sins. Renew us by your Spirit. Show us how to act, think, and live as Christ.  As you have forgiven us, make us merciful and ready to forgive those who have sinned against us. Give us the courage and the grace we need to restore relationships, heal brokenness, sacrifice our rights, and humble ourselves in order that we might experience forgiveness and reconciliation in our families, our friendships, our church, and our community.

O God, thank you for the freedom from sin you make available to us through Christ. Thank you for the saving and transforming power of your Holy Spirit. Renovate our hearts and minds. Help us to want what you want. Make us people who delight in your will, and walk in your ways, to the glory of your name.

Through Christ, we pray. Amen.

Saturday Smile - More Sage Advice

CBN media mogul Pat Robertson strikes again with brilliant advice for married women. Stephen Colbert reports the story. If you didn't laugh, you'd have to cry!

The Colbert Report
Get More: Colbert Report Full Episodes,Political Humor & Satire Blog,Video Archive

Friday Family - SKYPIPER

Ever since they were just little guys, my twin nephews, Graham and Gabriel, have been making music together. Check out their band, SKYPIPER. If you're in the Omaha area, you should go to their show at the Waiting Room tonight.

Skypiper Website
Skypiper on Facebook
Skypiper on Daytrotter
Skypiper at the Waiting Room, Tonight 9pm