by Mike
If you spend any time with the T4P team, you’ll hear us talk about ‘conversation’. The word may bring to mind ‘polite conversation’ or the ‘chattering classes’. But for us it’s a word of growing significance.
In the early days of T4P, I was struck by Chief Rabbi Jonathan Sacks’ phrase: ‘Society is a conversation scored for many voices’ – a conversation in which I respect you enough to tell you about myself and to listen as you reciprocate. He was speaking about how we might live together and shape a future when we come from such diverse cultures, faiths and value systems.
Or, as Martin Luther King put it: ‘We may have come in different ships, but we’re all in the same boat’. Last year, I heard Zygmunt Bauman (at the inaugural ‘Taking Soundings’ event in Leeds) suggest that the issue for our future is ‘the art of living together’.
We can see diversity in our city and nation as a challenge or a problem. Or we can grasp it with both hands and embark on learning the art of conversation with ‘the other’, whoever they may be – and that can only enrich us. The word ‘conversation’ literally means to ‘turn about with’ – and indeed, real conversation requires us to turn to one another. That may not mean that we change, but at least we will have understood each other better.
Tags: conversation, diversity, johnathan sacks, living together, martin luther king
July 23, 2009 at 5:17 pm |
When I was younger, we all use to eat meals together at home, and discuss topics. As an adult I cherish these memories and love to have a meal with the family so we can discuss current topics.
I realise now that this gave me the opportunity to develop the skill of conversation and debate. These days I think a lot of people have forgotten the art of conversation. The natural situations where you learnt the skills have demised.
We need to give people the opportunity and space to be able to develop their conversation skills. If everyone made an effort in their every day life to converse with their neighbours, or the person on the bus they sit next to, then these small steps can foster the art of conversation.