As communities (both online and in real life) continue to polarize and become more insular, I think it’s important to be aware of HOW to access people and groups that don’t share your particular background. Forget about getting to know a diversity of people if you don’t even know WHERE you can realistically connect. And I say “realistically” because everyone knows where “the other side of the tracks” are in their cities. Everyone knows which schools/churches/neighborhoods are unlike their own. But very few
Emily and I have been together now for almost 11 years. Over that time we’ve developed a motley assortment of “relationship tools.” That’s how I like to think of them, anyway. These tools help us communicate, resolve things, and stay organized. It sounds super campy and cheeseball but we’ve made up different tools like “Truth Serum” and “Lo Lists” and “Tug Boat/Cruise Ship” to name a handful. And they honestly are extremely useful. I’ll explain “Truth Serum” so that you get the idea.
So in the 1994 Arnold Schwarzenegger classic “True Lies,” at one point in the movie secret agent Arnold and his wife are captured and Arnold gets injected with a truth serum drug. The truth serum renders Arnold incapable of lying. The bad guys plan to interrogate him in this altered state. (But surprise! Arnold escapes and kills all the terrorists!)