Sometimes people's ways of understanding the world are just so very different that even what looks like similarity turns out not to be--which can be alarming when you realize it, if you've been assuming you both share X assumption, but it turns out you don't. A thing I really want to do (but haven't put into practice yet because contact with people is so brief these days) is to try prompting people to say more when they say something that panics me or seems wrong-headed. That's not my *instinct* of course. My *instinct* would be to say something like, "but what about--?" and raise something that I think shows the problem with their statement. But I'm now thinking, what if I just asked them to say more, "Oh, really? Can you explain more?" And then pick up on some particular part like, "You said, 'I just think it's bad to keep talking about climate change all the time'--can you tell me more about that?"

The other day I was frustrated by a meeting I was at, but I couldn't articulate for myself, let alone for the other people, what my problem was. Later, I was talking to one of my daughters about it, veering this way and that in what I was saying. She just listened and asked questions, and eventually I came to understand--and be able to articulate--what I was feeling and why. And so maybe that's true for other people, too, right? And maybe when you actually work things out, you walk away from some of what seems really alarming and awful to others. ... I mean, maybe not, or maybe not all people do, but...