Some of us at WVNVC have been participating in Braver Angels Oregon events. We see that NVC’s mission and skill set complement the type of friendly conversations that Braver Angels sets up between people who might not appear to be on the same side of any given social or political issue.
At the end of each month, the Salem group hosts a Coffee Talk event where participants are paired up for about 20 minutes to get acquainted and listen to the other person share a story related to the chosen topic of the evening. I have found these conversations wonderfully refreshing, and they put me at ease with a person I did not previously know. While we might sense misalignment in some areas, the stories we share have a way of making the person seem more familiar than strange. The goal is not that we come to agree, but that we come to see how their position on a subject make sense to them, based on where they’ve come from.
You’ll see us promoting the Braver Angels Oregon events on our website and in our emails because of our complementary missions.
One of their recent newsletters alerted me to a fledgling series of podcasts on Youtube produced by Braver Angels Oregon. I’ve been pleased to see them carrying out a desire I’ve had for years: to get to know the views and ideas of ordinary, yet extraordinary, people right here in Oregon. They are our neighbors, and people we can identify with. I’ve listened to all five of them and was pleased with how the interviews stimulated new perspectives and compassion through people I would otherwise not know were living here in this region. If you enjoy this kind of podcast, I urge you to check them out.
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PS- if, like me, you would prefer to listen to audio, and not sit and watch a video, I can point you to a free (and advert free) app called MediaHuman to convert Youtube videos to an audio on your computer. I load them on my phone to listen to while I do something physically active.
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