Greetings and Happy New Year's Trails to All!

First of all I would commend Santa Fe Bob for his diligent work with this group... It's like herding cats... Not easy.

That said, I'd like to offer some thoughts on how we interact with each other here. 

I taught critical thinking, strategic negotiation, and a couple of other relevant subjects as the post-graduate level for four years.  One of the topics we covered was the difference between dialogue and discussion.

One of our main references was a book by Harvard's Peter Senge called "The Fifth Discipline"...  In it he describes the difference between discussion and dialogue and how that impacts getting to deeper learning on a particular subject/topic.  He explains that discussion is an argumentative process whereby each participant forwards her/his idea as the best solution to some conundrum.   In this case every participant is trying to win. 

Dialogue, on the other hand, is a process wherein everyone suspends her/his assumptions in order to gain a deeper understanding and learn more about an issue.   Participants in a true dialogue can learn so much more when they aren't in the constant mode of reloading the next volley against someone else's opinion....

My two cents... I would like us to be involved in dialogue here... respecting everyone else's opinions even if we don't agree with them.  In that way, we will all learn more.
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Paul and Christine
06 View 23H in NW FL