John Wood, Jr. delivers the keynote speech on day one of the Weave the Social Fabric Project conference, on race and the power of love as a social value to transcend our divides.

‘Braver Angels really helped me to see the humanity in people from the other side’: One high schooler’s journey to better political conversations
A native of Boulder, Colorado, Mia didn’t know many Trump supporters—and she was nervous to engage with them. “I was like, ‘Don’t they hate women? Don’t they hate black people?’” she said. “That was my initial belief because that’s what I had heard about people who voted for Trump.” But she quickly realized she was wrong. During the first Braver Lens session, Mia was able to connect with conservatives in the group and recognize their points of commonality. “When we met, they showed their pictures, and explained their life stories, and I was able to see where our values overlap,” she said.


3 thoughts on “John Wood, Jr. speaks at the Aspen Institute’s #WeaveThePeople 2019”
While I agree in general with the thrust of John’s assertion – Love is where it’s at (excuse my paraphrasing), it will not yield to the sometimes quoted saying, “fake it until you make it”. My belief is that our love, in general, is smothered by our fear.
So, if you accept what I have said so far, then our first task should be, figure out how to reduce/eliminate our fear. In our relationships with others, a good first step is to get to know them better, thereby reducing the sense of “other”. I would also argue that obtaining a better understanding of how fear is generated – in ALL of us – that this would take us a long way toward reducing that fear and enabling us to demonstrate and exemplify the LOVE John is talking about.
John, this was excellent. Thanks for sharing so much of yourself in your discussion. I pray that the Spirit that was with you will be with me as I preach this Sunday on a message that could be polarizing if not listened to with love.
Thank you brother. It means a lot. And I know the Spirit is with you.