Trust and NEXUS

The ‘nuclear option’ in the US Senate. Accusations of infidelity of public trust roiling among democrats and republicans over the Supreme Court Justice nomination. The line in the sand that keeps shifting over Syria. Fake News assertions and ‘alternative facts’.

One must ask: what’s up and what’s down? Even this: what’s in and what’s out?

Obviously the polarity of the answers depends on your loyalty to persons and ideologies. And such is the current condition of American politics. AND government, too. Let us not forget the latter! The two go together these days.

And that’s the problem, isn’t it? What is reliable? What is trust based on? What are the facts? What is reality? A colleague asked me recently what echo chamber am I stuck in? I queried which ones he was partial to? And the skirmish seems to have ended there.

Trust is a combination of elements. Reliability of fact is one; openness to discussion and pondering of the points in that discussion is another. Is a person participating in the discussion asking for feedback on his ideas, his statements? Or is he making a claim to fact? Causation and result are not automatically agreeable terms. What I think caused a result may be very different from your take on the matter. And so forth.

Remember gab fests among friends over the weekend when you were in high school? Or bull sessions in the dorm during college? The talk was not about staking claim to truth but rather an earnest effort toward understanding the issues from various points of view. Somewhere in all of that ‘data’ was fact and truth hidden from view. The group worked at uncovering it.

In those days I felt a ‘coming together’ rather than a one upsmanship game. Or ‘king of the hill’ mentality where a show-off attempted to sway group sentiment toward one viewpoint. The coming together was a joining or ‘nexus’, a hub to gain knowledge and understanding. The opposite of nexus is debate. Debate is argument to win, tactics and strategy.

Debate can be informative but only with an open and hospitable personality. Putting an edge on the debate makes it a game to win situation.

I much prefer a discussion that helps participants better understand terms, definition of issues, and potential solutions to same. This is a coming together to better understand not only issues but the people with the differing points of view. Accepting the people is different than agreeing with a point of view. One can be without the other. And that keeps participants free to be themselves yet open their minds to fresh thoughts.

If this appeals to you, join us in June for NEXUS, a discussion held every Friday evening at Trinity Lutheran Church in Warrenville (corner of Curtis and Warrenville). Discussion starts at 7 pm and runs for 90 minutes or so. A speaker with a point of view and facts will keynote the topic for 10 or 15 minutes. Then discussion is open and encouraged. Sensible, polite discussion. The kind of discussion in which you can explore your own understanding of the topic and grasp a better feel for it.

We are kind and respectful in the process. Just like we were taught to be in kindergarten!

Be a part of this coffeehouse process. It is interesting and may be habit forming.

Fridays at 7 pm. Trinity Lutheran fellowship hall. See you then and there?

April 10, 2017