Common Conversations

Common Conversations: An idea of connecting, with several meanings:

• Conversations about what we share in common
• A kind of conversation conducted in the Commons, or Third Places of our neighborhoods: in parks, squares, public buildings, diners, coffee shops, local businesses and other spaces.
• Conversations, intended, in part, to invite and nurture the Restoration of the Commons in our lives and communities.
• Common, in the sense that we all know how to do this. We may not always consider ourselves singers, painters, dancers, leaders, or owners of other gifts deemed worthy of the name "talent", but we all understand and know how to sink into a satisfying conversation that can go on all night and leave us feeling invigorated, satisfied and connected. It's natural, and it's something for which we can find ourselves very hungry.

I know most of that sounds UN-common, but imagine a world in which powerful conversations and the questions that create them have become a common practice.

What might we do here, together?

• Post ideas and invitations for conversations you want to have.
• Tell stories from other people, places and initiatives
• Have coffee or lunch with someone who voted for the "other" candidate, then share reflections here.
• Have other conversations about what matters to another person, especially one with whom you disagree on something about which you can practice curiosity over persuasion, then share something about that here.
• Record a conversation, if everyone agrees, then share it as a podcast
• Make a blog post of reflections about your conversations and share some of it here.
• Connect with each other to craft public gatherings and neighborhood events in which the idea of common conversation is given power, and in which we can practice the intention to make each act a model of the world we want to create together.
• Your ideas will be better than mine... feel free to add them!

Several of us decided this would be a good group to create, a couple months ago at an ASG meeting downtown. I suggested the name Common Conversations because it was on my mind as one of the places my life is leading me, which includes the idea of the Restoration of the Commons and discovering ways to create new Third Places in the world. I've admired the "Free Conversation Booth" and other stories of people engaging their own lives through intentional conversation. It's taken me until today, the day after the 2008 election, to finish what I said I'd start in this group space.

I hope you'll join us and bring your own ideas & conversations, as well.