Good Communication - Rare

Please allow me to share a personal example about communication. Just prior to the last election I had a discussion with a customer. I rarely talk to customers other than fixing the machine and going on. This was a rare exception. Just a day or two before the elections I had a brief discussion and shared my web address with the customer because, at the time, I had a link at the top that had some appropriate information in relation to deciding who to vote for. I did not expect to see this customer for probably months, but it turns out that I had a call to go back the next day after the elections. I had a very good and lively discussion with the customer concerning such things as abortion and gay rights. We were coming from two totally different sides of the fence. When we finished the discussion the customer made a very good point.

She said that the problem with this country is that we do not communicate. I had to totally agree with her.

The good thing is that we had communicated long enough that we understood much better where each other was coming from.
Did we agree? Absolutely not. But, despite disagreeing, we parted as friends.
I wished our families, our church groups and our country did the same thing.
If we have something important that warrants discussion, then hash it out, but don't quit until coming to a better understanding of each other.

Will people agree on everything? No. But at least, maybe, they could hash things out enough to understand better where each other is coming from.

Did I grow up with this modeled? No.

Have I seen it done well in any of my families or groups since then? Rarely, if ever.

But does that mean we should keep going down the same path of non-communication? No.

Will most say everything right? No, maybe rarely, but that cannot be used as an excuse for why real communication is not attempted.

Silence is not golden.
Maybe Practice makes Perfect should be used. If we never practice hashing things out to the bitter end, if need be, we'll never come close to getting it right. If we try we might get it wrong but if we never try we will also never get it right.