How do we learn to speak together?

While it isn't an "easy" read, I am enjoying this book, in its Kindle edition.
Moerbe, Mary J.; Mitchell, Christopher. Blessed: God's Gift of Love. Concordia Publishing House.

Chapter 3 talks about "earthy" and often underappreciated gifts of creation.  (One example that came to my mind is "fertility." It's not just about having babies. Of course, we live in a society that doesn't even want our trees to be fertile in our yards. It is messy! Creativity of any sort is messy.) This book is forcing me to think and thoroughly different boxes. Anyhow, here is a snippet:

Blessings are sometimes rewards, but they are never payments; only gifts God gives as He chooses. His favor is not reserved for spiritual exercises or feats of strength. Instead, the Creator of heaven and earth plants a garden and provides food for “every living thing” (Job 12: 10; Psalm 145: 16). The almighty God makes us clothing and covers our shame. He considers even ravens and lilies of the field (Luke 12: 24– 28).

It kind of echoes something else I'm reading:

From Adam we have our “earthiness.” Not only did Adam and his descendants come from earth, from dust. Man’s concerns are also of this earth—material things and sensual experiences. He is occupied with the things of this world, not with the life of the spirit. Adam is our pattern for our “natural” life. “The man made of dust is the pattern for all men of dust.”In like manner Christ is the pattern for our heavenly life. “Just as each of us now has a body like Adam’s, so we shall some day have a body like Christ” (Living Bible [LB]). What we cannot really conceive of is indeed true: we shall be like Christ when our resurrection frees us from this sorry earthbound existence. Not only is there a resurrection awaiting those who are Christ’s; an undreamed-of glory will also be theirs.

Carleton Toppe, 1 Corinthians, The People’s Bible (Milwaukee, WI: Northwestern Pub. House, 1987), 155.

I love books! I especially appreciate books like these two that elaborate on what God has done and continues to do in the lives of HIS people.

It is sad to me that we are becoming increasingly unable to even discuss books anymore! We are so polarized, yelling at each other with our fingers in our ears and our eyes squeezed tightly shut. I have been looking for different discussions about how to have discussions, and ran across a couple of Ted talks that seem to apply.

The first covers a lot of what I would say. I especially found it interesting that in her story about taking a conservative to lunch, both women felt safe enough to ask each "other" why the "other" polarity demonized their side more than their side demonized the "other." Nobody changed each other's mind, but that wasn't the point. We have to be able to talk together and work together!

My instinctive reaction to the second one on "moral reframing" was not really good. I thought he was advocating merely changing the semantics to appear to value the morals of the hearer. I had to listen a second time before I realized that he was advocating "caring about your hearer." Know your audience well enough to know what is important to them. Odds are, you probably care about many of the same things. Maybe they are of a different "ranking" on your list of priorities, maybe your answer to the question is different, but we all care about many of the same things.

And yes, both of these speakers probably come from a different perspective than I come from. That's not important. I LEARNED from them both.

So… If you took an "Other" for a meal or coffee somewhere, what would you discuss? How would you reframe your important points in the language of the "Other"?