Special Series E7 | Christianity, COVID-19 and Reconnecting after 20 Years with Alison Calhoun Part 1
A few weeks ago I was browsing on Facebook when I came across this post:
The language of this post triggered me because it felt completely against everything I had been understanding about COVID-19. It felt accusatory, angry and pompous. What’s more is that the post was written by someone who was really important to me for a time: my high school bible study leader from 20 years ago.
Alison was a big part of my life for most of high school. We naturally lost touch after high school and while I don’t identify as a Christian anymore I only had fond memories of her. I realized my emotions were partly because I couldn’t reconcile the person I remembered her to be with the person that wrote this post.
I considered unfriending her on Facebook and even posting the screenshot to share with others. After some thought I realized that my feelings toward her were unfair especially if I wasn’t even attempting to have a conversation and understand. I saw an opportunity to learn and to use play as a tool to build a bridge between us.
After much deliberating, conversations with numerous people, research, reading and learning I decided to reach out to her to see if she would agree to a conversation for the podcast…and if she would be willing to participate in some play to start us off on the right foot.
In this conversation
I had three objectives/intentions with the conversation
- Reminisce about memories from the time she was my bible study leader
- Catch up about what our lives look like today
- Understand what the other person values and believes to be true in the context of COVID-19
I framed the conversation in six sections by preparing questions that I sent to her in advance. I also answered each question and once we both had a chance to share we had the opportunity to ask each other deeper questions.
- #1 – Icebreaker Games
- #2 – Reintroductions
- #3 – Bible Study Era
- #4 – Our Lives Today
- #5 – Life in the time of COVID-19
- #6 – Reflections and Grattitude
Mentioned in this episode and resources from today’s episode
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- Breaking Through Gridlock – a book I HIGHLY recommend to learn how to have challenging, potentially polarizing conversations, which is something we could all be better at
- Living Room Conversations
- John Durso, Bridging Our Divide
- Conner Moore, The Realness, Conner Wanders Experience and Ok, Babe
- Gary Hirsch, On Your Feet
- Jeff Harry, Rediscover Your Play
- Citizen Way – Alison’s husband’s band
Where to listen:
