海角大神

Today, we look at millennials and聽authentic Christmas, the ethics of alien life, a secret聽food bank聽for farmworkers, a chat about the聽values of 鈥淪tar Wars,鈥�聽and finding meaning in聽Tuba Christmas.

At the end of impeachment week, it鈥檚 tempting to feel that the nation is hopelessly divided 鈥� especially as we head into an election year that could get ugly. But let鈥檚 consider a counternarrative. Around the country, dialogues aimed at understanding the 鈥渞ed-blue divide鈥� are springing up. Monitor reporter Henry Gass wrote about聽one such effort聽in Wimberley, Texas, organized by a local chapter of the Better Angels alliance.

I reached out to an old friend of the Monitor,聽, the Better Angels coordinator for Maryland, to see how he鈥檚 feeling post-impeachment. Mr. Smerling told me something surprising: Getting American conservatives and liberals together for dialogue today is harder than it was to get Israelis and Palestinians to talk聽back in the day, when he was an advocate for Middle East diplomacy.

鈥淭he U.S. work is harder, in part because we were one step removed from the Arab-Israeli conflict, on the outside looking in,鈥� Mr. Smerling says. In the U.S. today, 鈥渋n this polarized conflict, we are 鈥榠nside the fishbowl.鈥欌�澛�

Yet Mr. Smerling is hopeful. 鈥淩eds鈥� and 鈥渂lues鈥澛�are聽willing to sit down together, and look within themselves at the stereotypes they hold about others and why others hold stereotypes about them.聽

At a recent聽聽in Rockville, Maryland, he says, 鈥測ou could feel the sigh of relief when the other side shared a moment of self-criticism and humility.鈥澛�