Honoring Kay Knott, Upper Skagit Elder and PTU Volunteer
Kay Knott is an elder in the Upper Skagit Tribe and a key volunteer with Paths to Understanding (PTU). I first met Kay when she reached out to learn more about PTU’s work. We had lunch and there was an immediate connection. At first, she came just to listen to how we bring people together…
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Our Turn
As I sit at my desk, I have a picture of PTU’s founders, Rabbi Levine and Father Treacy, before me and another one behind me. One I see on my office wall, and one I see whenever I’m recording video messages about PTU’s mission. It has now been two years since Father Treacy was received…
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The Great Connecting
Fifty percent of people in the United States report feeling lonely. Groups are disconnected from one another and trust between us is low. Seventy-five percent of Americans are concerned about the future of our democracy. Alarmingly, four percent say they are ready to use political violence to “save the nation.” Yet, something is happening in…
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First Followers are Leaders
Years ago, I watched a video about how movements begin. It showed a man dancing wildly at the Gorge Amphitheater near Vantage, WA. The video highlights the power of the first followers. I call them the second and third leaders. If the man dancing with abandon is alone, he’s just a loner. But when the…
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Shake Hands & Swing Hammers
For the second year in a row, Paths to Understanding (PTU) was an official partner of Habitat for Humanity’s Interfaith Build in King County. More than 100 volunteers worked on the Yarrow Cottages housing community in South Park. Volunteers from Muslim, Buddhist, Christian, and Jewish communities came together, guided by their shared values for the…
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Complication of Affiliation
In a 2018 interview with a progressive radio station in Spokane, I was asked if there was islamophobia on the left. It was a thoughtful question and one that took courage to ask. I respected that. Part of my response was to acknowledge that there is, indeed, some anti-religious bigotry in the United States. Some…
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I and We
We all know we’ve gone too far down the path of “me, myself, and I.” This has left us lonely, afraid, and feeling a lack of meaning, missing the mystery and beauty of the world around us. We were told that greed is good, but now we’re hungry for something greater—a common good. It might…
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Analogue Networking
Last week, I had a conversation with a thoughtful business owner about the Potluck for Democracy. We discussed the impact of social media on our society and how machine learning programs have learned to exploit our outrage, feeding us more of it to keep us on their platforms and generate more ad revenue. These platforms…
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Be the Chicken or the Egg
We often want to know what “started it.” We want to know what is the chicken and what is the egg. We do need to analyze what is happening. But sometimes our desire for complete understanding keeps us from acting. In a recent book by Robert Putnam, The Upswing, he shows how our nation went…
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