Shadowing Pádraig Ó Tuama: Common Ground is Not the Goal
While debriefing Narrative 4 circles I facilitate in and beyond Nashville, I often hear people say things like, “This experience reminds me of how much we all have in common. Most of the time, we’re all focused on all our differences, but we just need to remember that we are all more alike than we are different.”
This is a lovely sentiment, and one that may even be true. But it also might not be. While prioritizing the search for common ground has great use, it also runs the risk of assuming we must do this because difference is bad.
The Story We’re All Yearning to Tell
I think part of what this reveals is that we are all moving through life yearning to be true, authentic, and vulnerable with each other. We want desperately to show our true selves to each other. To have our pain and our pride, our vulnerability and our victories, seen and heard—even by total strangers. We have stories we don’t want to keep inside.
They are Muslim, We are Christian
Reposting a story I wrote for OnFaith on dining in the home of Palestinian Muslims, originally published April 3, 2017. As we prepare to step inside their home, a friend says, “It is a different world in there.” They are Muslim, and we are Christian. We come from white American privilege, and they from the poverty […]
![Yesterday, on my 30th birthday, my mom showed me this note she’s kept since I was in 4th grade. I had been playing on the elementary football team all summer but finally had enough. Here’s what I wrote it my parents to let them know. Amazing how you can change so much over the years, and also not change at all. [letter reads: Dear Mom and Dad,
I have made a choice. My reasons: I don’t want to hurt anyone. I don’t want to get hurt, I’ve already had 7 minor injurys. I don’t want to risk it, though I like to run I don’t like to run over, and I don’t like the coach yelling. So I have made my final choice. I QUIT.
P.S. Don’t talk to me about it unless you have to.]](https://scontent.cdninstagram.com/vp/759040878af1fcfe2aa73f23a60bc7ce/5D3FC3D5/t51.2885-15/sh0.08/e35/p640x640/56510995_2285070131811385_7311739717188716096_n.jpg?_nc_ht=scontent.cdninstagram.com "Yesterday, on my 30th birthday, my mom showed me this note she’s kept since I was in 4th grade. I had been playing on the elementary football team all summer but finally had enough. Here’s what I wrote it my parents to let them know. Amazing how you can change so much over the years, and also not change at all. [letter reads: Dear Mom and Dad,
I have made a choice. My reasons: I don’t want to hurt anyone. I don’t want to get hurt, I’ve already had 7 minor injurys. I don’t want to risk it, though I like to run I don’t like to run over, and I don’t like the coach yelling. So I have made my final choice. I QUIT.
P.S. Don’t talk to me about it unless you have to.]")
