Dialogue demands of each participant that we try to live into the other’s world, try to see things as another sees them. We do not enter into dialogue in order to persuade another to see things our way. We enter into dialogue because we are open to change and are aware that our lives need correcting. Dialogue requires a clear, radical, and arduous commitment to listening. Essential to that listening is knowing in the deepest recesses of our being that we really know very little about most things, and that the truth may rest with some unlikely soul.

In our own community we have hurt each other most when we rushed by one another without taking time either to share ourselves or to listen.