Wise Voices: Which voices do you trust?

Did you predict that Newt Gingrich would win the South Carolina Republican primary, unseating the frontrunner Mitt Romney? Perhaps you relied on various voices to help make your prognostication: the web, newspapers, radio, television, political pollsters, bloggers—the list of voices goes on and on.

Our central question today is: Which voices do you trust?

“Voices We Trust” was the starting point of a small-group dialog on Civil Discourse I began leading yesterday at First United Methodist Church in Ann Arbor, near where I teach at the University of Michigan. OurValues.org is an online experiment in civil dialog; yesterday, I began working with this small group to explore how people can create face-to-face civil dialogues about values issues.

One of the “voices” we heard in this pilot group was Dr. Rachel Naomi Remen. A physician, professor, writer, and teacher, she is an early pioneer in the mind/body holistic health movement. She has authored several books, including the bestseller Kitchen Table Wisdom: Stories That Heal. We listened to an excerpt of an interview she did with NPR’s Krista Tippett. (The PBS website has posted a transcript of Remen’s interview with Tippett.)

Our economic crisis, she argues, points to a “spiritual emptiness” that has existed for a long time. The good news is that the crisis can be an opportunity to initiate a personal search. This search, she says, begins with three questions:

1.) What can be trusted?
2.) What will sustain me?
3.) What do I really need in order to live?

How would you answer these three questions?

Has the economic crisis been an opportunity for you?

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Originally published at www.OurValues.org, an online experiment in civil dialogue.

Comments

[Judith Norwood]

I have learned how to trust my inner knowing - thus, I trust those who write and discuss our economic mess and trace it to greed, self-serving interests, exploitation and down right lying.
Friendships and trust in my higher power sustain me.
To live I need the energy and nurturing of those I love. I am looking forward to meeting and embracing others in my not so golden years.