Why Blog: An invitation to Conversation

There is, to borrow from Oakeshott, a 'grand conversation' into which each person is born; we belong to it and it belongs to us to the extent that we participate. We learn about the breadth and depth of the conversation as we engage in it, particularly as our horizons of understanding are extended the countless transactions. Gadamer tried to teach us that it was in the collision and/or fusions of these 'horizons of understanding' that humans come to the fullness of being ... that is, choosing the conversation wherever it may lead.

I understand the conversation into which I was born to be beautifully and richly ancient ... eternal in fact. The joy and wonder of it for me is that the conversation into which I was initiated, and first thought was merely among the human community, had its origins in the eternal narrative that is God ... a community of Persons in unending dialogue of unimaginable intelligence and ... as I later learned ... love.
The invitation was made by God to persons, some of whom are bound for a time to this earth and others who, as a rule, exist in a different matter mode but for whom the conversation is as real and as important.

As I have learned - and as we all learn - the conversational engagement is made more rich with courage, integrity, a willing ear, substance, and a some level of critical acumen. And, by critical acumen I mean the learned facility to understand points of discussion and to ask questions that further shared inquiry and conversation.

This grand conversation may be rich and satisfying, flat and uninteresting, or at times, fluid and fatiguing or narrow and painful. There seems always to be an element of risk in making the conversation because ideas are important. Ideas in conversation and action give meaning to our living and being, and, when our ideas and understandings collide with those of others, we make another journey into self-understanding. This is made more or less difficult relative to the extent to which we are able to distance ourselves from our own positions with humility.

There is a place of humility one needs to be in to have good conversation I think. This place of humility is in part ontological and, in part, ethical. Our being human is nothing if not an experience of realizing our finitude and limitations while, at the same time, feeling an ache to move beyond them. We intuit that we are not done when we die and that there is always something more to know or to experience. There is a sense that we are more than what we immediately experience and that there is nothing we can do about it as long as we remain in our skins. Ethical humility is expressed in deferring to another as persons, listening, hearing to understand, and occasionally silence in the face of contradiction and disagreement. In either case ... humility and rich conversation are partners.

So ... I blog as a feature of my condition as a person in a grand and eternal community of conversation about the meaning of our humanity. As I experience my person[ness] - particularly as I encounter ideas about God - I bring my understanding to conversation for many reasons. At times I think I have come across something that might be helpful to others because it has made a difference to me. These are time when I have a sense that I have taken a step toward greater fullness of understanding and experience.

I blog with a view to sharing the exploration and the increase of human being. It is also the case that in this enactment of the conversation there will be disagreement and it is in the conversation about God-ideas that the deepest passions and emotions are experienced as we continue trying to make sense of our humanity. Our passions are most inflamed when we try to make sense of the difficulties we experience; the tragedies and disappointments of our lived experience demand an explanation. When our tentative explanations become convictions and our lives still don't make sense it is difficult to live with the dissonance so ... we grasp, we rationalize, we ...stop trying to have it make sense anymore for fear that the pains and passions will never leave us.

So ... I need to continue to accept the invitation to conversation made to me by no less than God and to invite others to the same experience.