Can Wisdom Heal Some Of Our Divides?

At its heart, that is the question I want to help inform as I head out on Monday on this long, wandering journey that I call Wisdom Road. I don’t expect to find a concrete answer; there is no silver bullet. The fact is that our country, our species, has always been divided across a spiderweb of boundaries. Why care? Why now? What is different?

Some of us feel these divides more sharply because we grew up in a time when divides were less evident. I grew up insulated within White middle-class suburbia. I did not live the reality of a farm kid, a kid of color, a poor kid. They knew about the divides way before I/we did.

So now the dissonance of a people divided comes to roost for many of the rest of us. Why care, why now? Because we can.

My little part is to find people whose voices tend to be overlooked by our news media, social media, selfie, sound-bite, influencer world. I KNOW that once you sweep aside the ephemeral, the dross, the wispy, there is deep wisdom that has informed us, transformed us, sustained us, built us strong. I SUSPECT that such deep wisdom is shared by people who often find themselves on different sides of current divides. I ANTICIPATE that not all wisdom is shared. I HOPE to find out more.

If you have similar hopes, join me on this journey; we can learn together. Maybe we can learn some things that will make us more whole again.

The first leg starts on August 29, general destination the northern plains, path largely to be determined. I will be writing and posting frequently here. Follow me on Twitter and #WisdomRoad for daily moments of reflection. Join the Wisdom Road Facebook group to share moments of the journey with me and with fellow “travelers”. It is all free. Pilgrims don’t charge a fee.