Listening for America

Today I am grateful for unique opportunities and conversations. I am also grateful for the many avenues which I have to honor the process of living gratefully and sharing some of those avenues with others.

Thank you to my friend Liz who helped bring an opportunity my way yesterday. I appreciated seeing Liz, meeting her friend Cathy, having an interesting and engaging conversation, and also being able to share my community's natural beauty with them on a pleasant June day.

As a former Under Secretary of State in the Obama administration, and a Vice President at Apple Inc., Cathy has a wealth of experience and knowledge in the area of international trade. She is currently the president of the non-partisan organization Listening for America.  A key part of their purpose reads:

We are having conversations with Americans from all walks of life about their views 

of and experiences with international trade and globalization.

And this blog post written by Cathy further explains the goal of the organization. As our conversation unfolded, both Cathy and I asked one another questions. I had felt "unqualified" to talk about global trade, but she made me feel comfortable and affirmed that all I needed to do was share my own thoughts and ideas. I walked away feeling very good about our time together.

As a former social studies teacher who preached staying up on current events, to a more recent citizen who avoids most of the news and discerns what is reputable news and what isn't, it felt good to meld those two parts of my life experience together. I can and should do my part as a citizen blessed to live in a democratic nation.

There is so much good in the world, and international trade agreements generally have the goal of adding to that good. They are not perfect, however, and with benefits come trade-offs that can be negative.

I see Cathy and her organization trying to lessen the negative impact, bring more people into the conversation, and move forward in ways that help and protect our entire planet and humanity, not just key business stakeholders, world leaders, certain countries.

Underlying all of this, I return to one of my favorite propositions to my fellow humans. What can we each do today to add to the positive stream of life? How can we each contribute more and contaminate less in our interactions with one another and with ourselves? There is so much potential here. So much progress that can be made by simply pausing and listening.

Thank you Cathy and Listening for America. Onward!