I saw a beautiful example of openness today in a friend of mine. He handled a difficult situation with an admirable degree of openness, humility, goodwill and understanding when indigence, frustration, hard-headedness or anger would normally be expected.
This friend is grappling with the situation unfolding as he falls in love with someone who considers themselves non-monogamous. It’s easy to see how this might be a barrier for him in the relationship. It’s easy to see how he might feel frustrated, rejected or wanting to argue against her response when they have conversations about it and about their relationship.
But he opened when the impulse was to close. He had the conversations from a place of curiosity, trying to understand where she was coming from. Without any uncertainty on his own feelings, he truly tried to imagine being open the idea and asked incisive questions to try to make sense of it.
These qualities displayed by my friend stand in stark contrast to much of the dialogue related to politics and current events these days, which is often so polarised, inflamed and othering that dialogue is impossible.
Inspired by my friend, I want to used the occasion to recommit to ensuring MindStew content reflects the same qualities. The content and views expressed here are offered with humility and openness. The information within aspires to be helpful, to foster understanding and promote conversation.