FootprintsintheWind.com

The magic of conversation comes from the stretch—it stretches us outside ourselves and outside our assumptions and outside our perceived and maybe real abilities—to whom we might yet be. Only when we stretch do we converse.

Some stretching arises from or draws us into the between, some we choose, some we can seek. Some opens our eyes, some engages our brains or even our minds, some shakes our being, some changes the world we hold in common. All engages our hearts or spirits. It might be wholly involuntary or partially.

If we meet we are changed. We grow or we break. Either way we grow. Either way we gain life. In all cases stretching is core and cor. This distinguishes chit-chat and debate. For we can stretch the mind in debate, searching for a stronger come-back, but it is not conversation. Conversation involves the turning of the compost and the spinning of the dancers: that is stretching. This stretching is of the kind that we seldom can go back to our prior size or shape.

:- Doug.