MacGyver your way through tough conversations

Today on Dad Strength:

• Dad wisdom: What would MacGyver do?

• Rescheduling our pop-up

• Book recommendations—good news, everyone!

• Quote: on arguments

• Dad Joke

MacGyver your way through tough conversations

There you are in the middle of a perfectly enjoyable conversation when someone drops a controversial statement—something makes your personal sense of justice tingle. You will want to respond but this is a tripwire—whether it’s placed intentionally or not. Without great care, things will explode, possibly taking the relationship with them.

In our most recent call, one of our dads shared a story of speaking with his grandfather, a fundamentally good man—but with very different politics than his own. Some bait was dangled—creating an easy emotional response and likely explosion. His responded with a simple, loving act. He waited. He listened. He listened some more. And then… when the rant finally ran out of steam, he chose his words very carefully. He found the most positive, interesting, and personal detail he could—something wayyyy back at the beginning at the conversation—and then he said, “Tell me more about that.”

I don’t know if it’s going to solve all of our problems but I do believe that, if we can work from a place of shared values, as opposed to polarization, we’re more likely to get somewhere worth going.

These thoughts come from our most recent Dad Strength call.

Book recommendations

Read here

Submit recommendations to here

This week:

The Body Keeps the Score

Never Split the Difference

Quote:

“You don’t have to attend every argument you’re invited to.”

—Kevin Kelly

Dad joke

I saw a guy carrying two tanks of hydrogen and a tank of oxygen. I asked him about it and he told me that he'd just bought some water at Ikea.