Learning to love and be patient with folks not quite giving their all to life...

I had a great Mother's Day weekend...

My great aunt Katie, my grandmother's sister, had a major heart attack last week and I went down to Wichita to make sure she was ok...she seems to be doing better, which is good...and it's always nice to get down to see the girls...my grandma, my Aunt Kathleen, my Aunt Katie, Kathy (a family friend), and Kathy's mom, Ruby...they're a great bunch to hang out with and to get to know better:):)...

My grandma still frustrates me every time I go down...I love her to death, but she does seem to have a fetish, sometimes, for telling me what to do all the time and controlling my movements which was tedious when I was a kid, nevertheless as a 32-year-old...

But it was a great weekend to have a greater appreciation for the fact that though I get really frustrated with how foolishness dominates so much of mine and everyone's life...professional life...political life...personal lives...that I still love people despite the foolishness...and just wish they'd stop trying to control me all the time...and wish they'd take deeper thought more seriously...though I'm learning much more patience for the fact that they don't...
I so appreciated coming home at the end of the weekend...because Melissa, for all of her faults, has one really important thing going for her...she doesn't try to control me, as a general rule...and I very much appreciate that...

I vented for at least an hour about my frustration that institutions with such low standards for thought and reflection dominate so much of American and democratic life...mass-audience magazines like Time, Newsweek, and U.S. News and lowest common denominator TV like Primetime Live and 20/20...as much I also find much in each of these news sources that I very much appreciate and learn from, as well...they're just not that terribly thoughtful or deep-thinking in their analysis...

And my perpetual frustration that smarter news and entertainment -- C-SPAN (though C-SPAN does have a really big and broad audience, thankfully), the Economist, the Washington Post (the best American daily, as far as I'm concerned), Foreign Affairs, etc. -- and other elements of the culture are not treated more seriously by more people...

And then I was ok...

I'm just making some peace, I think, with the fact that so many people neither take serious thought seriously nor aspire...and with the fact that such people have much to share that those of us who do can learn from...

But as my Chinese fortune cookie this weekend said:

Wise people learn much more from fools than fools learn from wise people...
That pretty much sums it up, I think...

And that's how most serious policy questions turn, I think...

My participatory dialogue work would seek to include many more people in a much higher level discussion, featuring people who are strongest at having those discussions and everyone else having a place in the dialogue, though with substantial respect for those who know best what they're doing and what they're talking about...scholars, people working in the field, citizens with relevant experiences or understandings in an open-ended, constructive, and as on-going as possible participatory discussion of major policy issues...with education for everyone being a central focus of all discussions...

The bottom-line is that all people need to get more involved...

But some people just know what they're doing better...and those discussions need to facilitate that highest level learning among those who know, best, what they're doing, as much as include and educate and give lay people an opportunity to voice they're own opinions, as well as teach a thing or two to their more expert colleagues...

And this weekend gave me much more patience for such endeavors...

I love my family...they frustrate me when they talk about any important policy matter because they have these terribly strong opinions about issues that they know so very little about:):):)...
But I'm learning more patience for their's and my learning as we engage one another about important matters of public policy and just every day life:):):)...

I'm learning that though I think I have a more mature and serious outlook on most policy and just life issues than many if not most of the people I work with and live my life with...
That we're all on this ride of life, together...so we might as well learn to live it and work at it the best we can with one another...and all get better at it, together...
I've got an IEP to work on:):):)...

But that was an important bit of work and reflection from the weekend:):):)...

Have a great week, everyone:):)...

Love,
Ben