Play detective
Ask your friend to play a detective and describe his bedroom.
:- Doug.

Footprints in the Windsm # 2268
We may seek to belong to one another
and to touch the numinous among us
these discoveries leave innumerable puzzles
Please pass it on.
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Toward all:
news novelty
contribution choice
Internet library
bigger prayer
meditate contemplate
reading baby
sunrise sunset
:- Doug.
Belonging:
lovers children
husband wife
congregation club
party festival
flag neighbor
neighborhood town
state country
planet star
galaxy universe
mind puppy
:- Doug.
Life in conversation:
movement drinking
going building
sitting praying
arguing fighting
:- Doug.
All life is in conversation
The arc of conversation bends toward belonging
Belonging—at times broken—bends toward all
:- Doug.
What is the pitch of your conversation?
As in high or low notes?
As in degree of emotions?
As in the tent you put up?
As in what you are selling?
As in thick, black and sticky?
As in the slope, up or down?
As in sudden movement?
As in your field of play?
As in throwing?
As in wrestling?
:- Doug.
Word choices: do I want clarity or do I want to convince people? They are not exclusive to one another, but they can be ordered, and I for now think that clarity is first order. Then again, ordering is I-It and not of I-Thou, not life-giving. Clarity is first because I need to know what it is I am telling you before I can expect you to come along with me.
:- Doug.
Footprints in the Windsm # 2267
Surely we need each day one of us to point us to something larger. The family of humankind to be first sure. The family of all living things to be second sure. And the something from afar to be wholly sure.
Please pass it on.
© c 2023, Learning Works, Incorporated. All rights reserved. Easy reprint permissions: 574/274-5353, or by e-mail to mailto:Footprints AT FootprintsInTheWind.com. Back issues available at http://www.FootprintsintheWind.com
Please publish in your print or electronic periodical, with the above info.
To subscribe, send an e-mail with the word “subscribe” to mailto:Footprints AT FootprintsInTheWind.com
The antidote to dying
is talking artfully
we play for keeps
conversation’s work is in
perpetuation of living
:- Doug.
Conversation is taking a risk. As a sign that conversing with you is safe, as showing you know the courage your friend is taking, you must therefore say “Wow! You told me something I did not know, gave me a new point of view, surprised and stunned me.” Cultivate your ability to be surprised.
:- Doug.
Most days I awaken curious. What time is it? What does the day hold in store—really—beyond what’s on the calendar?
:- Doug.
A good punch line deserves a second sentence, to keep the conversation going.
:- Doug.
Be absolutely ruthless in holding your own feet to the fire in your practice of conversation.
:- Doug.