Craig and I don’t see eye to eye, but I’m glad we literally crossed paths at the #marchforourlives today. A policeman had just gestured to us to take yet another detour to catch up with the march on an empty side street, and Craig asked me why I was marching. I gave him my conversational response about policy change. He quickly told me he was there to defend his 2nd Amendment rights. He has 2 guns. I have zero. For the next 10-15 minutes, we walked together in conversation. Talking. Debating. “Dancing.” Defending. And listening. We disagreed on points. We agreed that the government needs to do something. He wants guns to protect himself, and feels schools should just have metal detectors. He also told me in NY it took him years to get his guns... one rationale I had been rooting for. I had him describe a scenario of him using his gun to defend himself - if an intruder surprised him in his bedroom while sleeping. I think his pause meant he hadn’t actually thought through the (lack of) reality for him to get the key to his closet to get his gun and THEN defend himself. The reflective pause was welcome. He believes the source of the interests lies outside the US, and started sharing his perspective on the situation in Syria. At some point i introduced myself and reached out my hand to shake his. I don’t subscribe to his rationale, but I’m so glad he started the conversation. What made it work - and I reflected in this in the moment- was that we were both in motion. It took the edge off, and we had to both look at each other and look away. Maybe this could be a thing— 15 minutes of a chat with someone from a different ilk. (And so much better than the curated social media channels we can fall into...) And of course I had to capture it. Speaking with Craig made getting out to the March worth it. #newyork #differentstrokesfordifferentfolks #justmet #talkingitout #dialogue #weseetheworlddifferently (at Manhattan, New York)
