by Margaret Anderson | Feb 4, 2017 | Blog
How do you discuss your political ideas? You wonder how to begin? How to phrase things? But the most persuasive people listen more than they talk. They listen, not to rebut, but rather, to understand. Focus first on the other person. Learn what she thinks and how she...
by Margaret Anderson | Feb 1, 2017 | Blog, DADA
Readers, I urge you to read this article “The Data that Turned the World Upside Down,” Motherboard, [All quotes in this post are from the Motherboard article.] It isn’t short, but read it all. You’ll be glad you did. The article describes psychometric methods that...
by Margaret Anderson | Jan 26, 2017 | Blog
In Part I of the “Bridges across Politics” series, “Take One Tortoise Step,” we saw acts of kindness as steps toward civilized political dialogue with a fellow citizen. Further steps, ways to actually discuss political issues, should only be taken mindfully, when you...
by Margaret Anderson | Jan 23, 2017 | Blog
As I wrote last time, an act of kindness is a good beginning for a bridge between ordinary private individuals. But that doesn’t mean we should relax vigilance regarding public figures and organizations. In view of the new administration’s statements about the press...
by Margaret Anderson | Jan 19, 2017 | Blog
In Star Wars: The Phantom Menace, Yoda said “Fear leads to anger. Anger leads to hate. Hate leads to suffering.” Many Americans have come to fear those who hold political or religious views different from their own. (I’ll call them “differently-believing persons” or...
by Margaret Anderson | Jan 12, 2017 | Blog
Here is a link to an audio recording of the talk/sermon “Mid-Course Corrections” that I gave last Sunday for the Unitarian Universalist Fellowship of Galveston County. They had asked me to speak about change. I talked about how, just when you think you’ve found your...