“In casual conversation, how long does it take before someone starts complaining?”

I had Thanksgiving Dinner at the home of a Nigerian-American family.  My brother, Preston(since the dawn of our friendship we’ve been pretty sure we are twins separated at birth) and his wife, Michelle and their 5-year-old daughter, Rachel had invited me along on their Thanksgiving plans.  Preston, the host couple and three more guests share the fact of long ancestries, birth, childhood and young adulthood in Nigeria.  Although they did not meet… Read More

Grandmothers on Fathers’ Day

Two American Indian men stand together.  The Elder is Wyandotte and Choctaw of the Mississippi Valley; the younger is Walla Walla of the Columbia River.  They are of two generations and they are friends.  The men chat with one another during a break in a graduate class of mostly non-Indian students.  The students are preparing to be teachers and counselors and taking this course on contemporary Native American life. The older man… Read More

What Accents Have to Do with World Peace

The bald eagles are nesting in northern Wisconsin.  To see them is a privilege.  This sense of privilege – really, of awe – is not new in humans.  And the birds deserve it.  Their power and dignity, their grace and comfort with majesty can only be met with appreciation of the highest order. Then there’s everyday eagle speak.  Not the famous war cry that echoes through canyons, but the way eagles chat… Read More

Listening Across Difference — We’re all in this together, Pt.2

“We’re not as divided as the media tell us we are.” “Good luck.  We need this — to know what Americans are really thinking.”  baristas at the Starbucks in York, NE Only two days into the EX:Change road trip the Mini Cooper’s front end came between me and the sturdy steel pole of a highway sign.  At the time, I was blissfully if distractedly motoring south on U.S. Route 97, the stretch… Read More