everything is a conversation

“A conversation has a spirit of its own,” Gadamer writes, “and the language in which it is conducted bears its own truth within it.” This insight directly challenges information-transfer models of communication. Language isn’t just a vehicle for pre-formed thoughts; it’s the medium through which thinking itself happens. Or as Soleio writes,... See more

No one ever begins anything, except by grace. To sin means to think that one can begin something oneself. We never start anything; we always respond.

— René Girard

The monomyth appeals to us because the hero is Special and has a Cosmic Mission that gives him/her unquestionable definite purpose. We have difficult choices about life-paths, which people in the archaic times of myth simply didn't. They had to play the random hand dealt to them. https://t.co/mTuzfneWkq

Great conversations give us this gift: we receive more than we sought.

We find ourselves saying things we didn't know we knew, wanting things we didn’t know we wanted, becoming someone we didn’t yet know we could be. The path matters because the path changes us, and in changing us, it changes where we can go next.

A good conversation is an act of joint exploration. Somebody floats a half-formed idea. Somebody else seizes on the nub of the idea, plays with it, offers her own perspective based on her own memories, and floats it back so the other person can respond. A good conversation sparks you to have thoughts you never had before. A good conversation starts

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