Benefits of the Dialogue

Dialogue With RCS: more meaning in you your life, better understand others, a way to a better world, being listened to.  
           

                On this new blog I intend to continue a number of posts on a kind of dialogue with which you may be becoming familiar. Some churches, corporations, civic organizations, and others have been this sort of dialogue for years, so it is not brand new.

               

                For those who may not be certain of what I mean by dialogue, In brief, it is meaningful talk within groups.

                

                Below I will begin to note a few of the dialogue's benefits. As we are now on the internet I will say now that, I do not know of cases of the dialogue's being used successfully online. However, I believe that it is now possible to do so, but am not sure how. If you would like to suggest something the "comments" window below is for your use.

                

                As I know it the dialogue is best used face to face, in person. And seems most effective in groups of between 20 and 40 participants. Groups of 15 and less have been please with it. Much of it can be used to good effect between husband and wife. It has been used with groups with groups much larger than 40 with professional facilitators and more as a demonstration than as well functioning group. I would like to see it use online. 

                

                The following list is far from inclusive and not completely representative, but can serve to introduce something of the dialogue.

                I am calling it the dialogue now, have called it Magic Table Dialogue and Dialogue For Peace.

                    

 Benefits include:

~ learning to make yourself heard.

~ being heard.

~ being listened to.

~ coming to enjoy being heard.

~ an opportunity for the practice of listening.

~ learning that dialogue is more than talk.

~ gaining motivation to listen.

~ improving your use of language.

~ practicing a language new to you.

~ learning new listening skills.

~ the possibility of getting in touch with traditions of knowledge new to you. 

~ getting to know yourself better.

~ getting to know an interesting other.

~ knowing new people.

~ having fun while realizing that the dialogue is a serious activity.

~ experiencing the creation of culture. 

~  increasing your word power.

~ Seeing how better dialogue can be a way to a better world.

~ sharing meaning and understanding.

~ the possibility of beginning an interesting new exploration with safe, comfortable "baby steps." Still there might come a time that you will want to take a step beyond your comfort zone.

~ improving your ability understand others, even those quite different from you.

~ learning more of the effect of assumptions in our lives.

~ the possibility of increased meaning and understanding in our lives.

                                     

                 More to come.

                There are about 50 little essays at Dialogues With RCS. It's okay if you read a couple.

                Thank you for reading!

                                                                                                              RCS

 

 

Few Understand Reification Quickly

Reification is an important and useful concept which you can begin to understand today. Some may think that there is no such thing. Others may think that there is no thing. You can probably agree that "change'' is a useful concept, and perhaps believe that it exists. Most of this seems to depend on the circumstances and our purpose at the moment.

Woman and Girl

Mago Bill: EsoExo: Understanding, knowledge, meaning, wisdom,  experience, and learning.

 

             She was young, about my age then. She was speaking with an older woman whom she obviously cared for, but she was saying with some vehemence, "You just don't care."

            The older woman seemed truly fond of the girl. She may have felt some hurt at the girl's words, still, she responded in kindly tones. I remember what she said. She had said, "I have come to see that many things do not matter much and that most things don't matter at all."

            The girl answered, still with some feeling, "You don't care about anything."

            The woman answered, a bit as though she were speaking to herself as much as to the girl, "Once knew a wise old gentleman who didn't believe in "things."

            After a few seconds the woman continued, "Your feelings matter to me very much, but I am not responsible for them."

RCS

Without a Teacher

Learning to write without a teacher may be effectively done and enjoyed.

                It has been done in groups of from 5 to 17 participants. Basically, the members each commit to reading the writing of a member then to coming together with the other members to share their feelings about what they have read. 

Hearing what others have felt as they read your works has proven a great help to improving one's writing and a powerful experience in itself.

Any Questions?  I'll clarify one doing without being asked.
Every member reads one specified piece of  writing of one member of the group. Then in a gathering of all the members each member tells about how she felt as she read the piece.
This telling of feels is done at nearly every meeting of the group.

The bit below is about what I have learned from my experience and from Mr. Elbow. It is something that I might offer at an appropriate moment in the gathering of my group.

                On the horizon, a Final Draft 

                Once you have some writing from which it seems you can coax some coherence, you may be close to the point at which to edit and turn out a final copy.

            Take 15 minutes to make your meaning clear to yourself.

                You might let yourself consider an outline or plan.

                Sum up what you have into a genuine single assertion of what your meaning is. Not easy, but possible. Remember that your assertion must actually assert something that can be quarreled with.

                You have grown your meaning and specified it to yourself clearly. Good for you. Your efforts and good thinking will give you a good chance to do some truly powerful writing.

                                                                            by Richard Sheehan
                                                                            or Mago Bill

The Meaning of Myth – The Fork of White Hazel