The Potluck Project
All of the Above: Relief and Resilience
In recent weeks, many have asked me: “How can we do bridge-building work when there is so much harm taking place?” I get it. The challenges are real. We live in a time that is both dangerously unequal and dangerously divided. Inequality leaves too many without security or opportunity. Division makes it harder to even…
Read MoreToo Big and Too Small
It’s easy to spend hours each week reading about national politics, big court cases, or the latest viral controversy. These stories are important—but for most of us, they are too big. We have almost no direct influence over them. We can get angry, anxious, or exhausted, but that rarely leads to any action that changes…
Read MoreThe Gift of Multifaith: What Our Tradition Offers the Bridge-Building Movement
As we reflect on how our mission at Paths to Understanding needs to evolve to meet today’s context, I keep coming back to this: multi-faith organizations have a gift to offer the wider bridge-building movement. A recent article by Allison Ralph put it plainly: advocacy and bridge-building strategies, on their own, are failing to create…
Read MoreBeyond Bridges: Growing Something That Lasts
At a recent board meeting, we were deep in discussion about our mission statement. We were throwing around a lot of good ideas—words like “bridge-building,” “unity,” “bias,” “community.” Then, a few of our board members—leaders from Indigenous communities—gently pointed something out. They noticed how much of our language, and the broader bridge-building movement’s language, leans…
Read MoreA Moment Made for Connection: Why PTU’s Work Is So Urgent Now
Something big is happening in our country, and not in a flashy headline kind of way. It’s quieter than that—but no less urgent. Across the United States, people are feeling lonelier and more disconnected than ever. Even as we live closer together and connect more often online, we’re growing farther apart in real life. Robert…
Read MoreA ‘Whole of Society’ Response
We’ve all felt it. It’s not just in our heads—researcher Robert Putnam has been tracking this disconnection for decades. His work shows what many of us already know: since the 1960s, Americans have become more isolated, less trusting, and less engaged in community life. This loss of connection makes everything harder—raising kids, solving local problems,…
Read More