SEEKING A PATH FORWARD

Ferrin Knob Tunnel, Blue Ridge Parkway

I serendipitously channel surfed onto the CBS Good Morning show today and happened upon a conversation involving the family of Alaina Housley, the 18 year old that was the youngest victim of the most recent mass shooting in this country.  Her body had just been returned to her home town in Napa, California and her father remarked that "We don't believe that her voice will die. We believe that there is a message that's out there."

When the interviewer asked "What's the message?", Alaina’s father simply responded:

"To us, it's to be kind to one another. It's to put down your technology, put down your phones and look at somebody and have a conversation. It's not about gun control; this message is about doing something bigger, to be with your community, to love one another."

"What if somebody walked up to the guy and just asked him how he was doing that day and said 'hello' to him or did something that may have just changed his mind, instead of ignoring, or whatever we're doing?"

When the Son of God was asked by the religious leaders what was the greatest commandment of all the over 600 in existence at the time, he simply responded that we are to love God and love one another.  Period.

Alaina’s uncle, a former news correspondent, was right when he stated that if he mentioned the controversial issue of gun control, the defense shields would automatically be deployed around many people and much communication would end.  This applies to all the controversial issues today that appear to have no viable solutions, certainly those moral issues that those in power seek to legislate.

I used to facilitate a management skills course in employee conflict resolution where the key point was to focus on the behavior, issue or situation and absolutely not on the individual.  If you started the conversation with the offender’s name, the defense shields would immediately deploy—end of conversation!  In the case of contentious issues, we may need an even more basic starting point—focus on our common humanity and nothing else, so that we can inch toward a productive resolution.  And don’t provoke the communication shields to deploy! 

There may be some that will never be open to finding some common ground, but when those who seek to follow divine guidance come together and speak from the heart, some progress can happen.  Perhaps just enough to find a starting path to a better way forward into the light.