In my continuing series related to my new book Habits of a Peacemaker, this next post seems especially apropos since today is the anniversary of the September 11 attacks. Peacemakers—defined for my purposes as those among us who can have productive conversations about hard topics—generally assume the best about the people with whom they are conversing, regardless of their identities or even deeply held beliefs about controversial issues. Below is an excerpt from Habits Chapter 3, "Assume the Best About People":
Some time ago, I received an unusual email. It was from two high-level federal judges.… One had been appointed by President Barak Obama, the other by President Donald Trump. They informed me that once a month, they and a group of other … judges met together in their private capacities for a prayer breakfast. This was not a public event, not a spectacle where politicians and media showed up to try to garner favor with the voting public.
It was private. Most people never learn of it. The judges—of different faiths and very different political and judicial ideologies—met together throughout the year to enjoy breakfast and pray with one another, usually about people in their lives who were suffering. They were wondering if I would be willing to come and talk with them about one of my books [one not directly related to law].
I agreed. I … met them … early one morning. Outside, several news outlets were setting up cameras for a story about a case some of these jurists would hear later in the morning.
As soon as I entered the building, one of the judicial assistants lead me through security, down a narrow hall, and into a small conference room, where the judges eventually joined. To see them all sitting together, people who are often portrayed as being at one another's throats, was touching to me. Despite their very real differences, they recognized the good in one another and the parts of their identities they had in common, and they shared those over a bite to eat. Like everyone else in our world, they worried over their loved ones, they expressed concern over people they personally knew who were suffering, and they shared empathy with each other over their very human struggles.
I wish everyone could see people like this in that setting.
