Author | Lightnews

CommonEndeavour @commonendeavour.bsky.social · 25d

Maury Giles, CEO of Braver Angels describes a tool for difficult conversations

I want to share one last thought that has helped me in my own family discussions. I just read over the weekend a tip that John Inazu, professor of law and religion at Washington University, shares to remember how to develop this civic muscle (sounds like the Braver Angels Way). He calls it G-R-A-C-E:

Ground yourself in your convictions

Respect others

Assume complexity (more to the story), not character (assuming someone is evil)

Cultivate curiosity

Engage with empathy

Even now. Especially now. We need to practice grace in our courageous citizenship.

Reposted by CommonEndeavour

Ray E. Boomhower @rboomhower.bsky.social · 27d

“We cannot live only for ourselves. A thousand fibers connect us with our fellow men; and among those fibers, as sympathetic threads, our actions run as causes, and they come back to us as effects.”
Herman Melville, who died on this day in 1891

2 52 170

CommonEndeavour @commonendeavour.bsky.social · Sep 25

Women for Election is holding an information session on October 2. Learn who they are and what they do. And maybe think about running?
They are non-partisan.

Information Session | 2 October 2025

Curious about running for office? Learn how Women for Election can support your first steps and give you the confidence to start your journey.

wfe.org.au

CommonEndeavour @commonendeavour.bsky.social · Sep 22

It is hard to see! Especially from a distance.

Also agree that much too much effort is spent on causing division.

This can make the points of light where connection occurs shine brighter?

1

CommonEndeavour @commonendeavour.bsky.social · Sep 22

Indeed, the country has a fraught and often painful history. And still, thousands of people all over the country strive to connect to this day.

1 1

CommonEndeavour @commonendeavour.bsky.social · Sep 22

An Australian analogue of Braver Angels is Brisbane Dialogues

www.brisbanedialogues.org

#Connection

CommonEndeavour @commonendeavour.bsky.social · Sep 22

Connection can be frightening, especially in politics, these days, in the United States.

It’s still vitally important and still sorely needed, everywhere.

“given the right tools and opportunity, Americans still had the courage to connect.”
- Braver Angels

braverangels.org

#Connection #AusPol

Home

Braver Angels is a citizens’ organization uniting red and blue Americans in a working alliance to depolarize America

braverangels.org

1

CommonEndeavour @commonendeavour.bsky.social · Sep 22

“The phenomenon external to an area of interest affects what goes on inside.”
- Tobler’s second law

CommonEndeavour @commonendeavour.bsky.social · Sep 22

“everything is related to everything else, but near things are more related than distant things.”
- the First Law of Geography, Waldo Tobler

#Connection #AusPol

CommonEndeavour @commonendeavour.bsky.social · Sep 22

“everything is related to everything else, but near things are more related than distant things.”
- the First Law of Geography, Waldo Tobler

#Connection #AusPol

1

CommonEndeavour @commonendeavour.bsky.social · Sep 19

‘…among the best things we can try to do … to be good ancestors.’

Onkalo: a Finnish spent nuclear fuel repository - to store dangerous nuclear waste for millions of years
Sampo: a magical substance from the Finnish epic, Kalevala. To McFarlane, reminiscent of the nuclear waste stored at Onkalo

“Here a problem is being solved, gradually and practically, by a community of people to the best of their abilities. Here the hard labour of collective decision-taking and world-making is being carried out, imperfectly but necessarily, and with a care that extends not only for a decade or a generation but far forwards into a post-human future.
Maybe this is among the best things we can try to do, I think, as Sampo grinds through the world’s epochs: to be good ancestors.”

2

CommonEndeavour @commonendeavour.bsky.social · Sep 7

Another important reminder - beautifully written piece about why we do the hard things. (Sadly also paywalled)

www.thesaturdaypaper.com.au/life/gardeni...

Prime time for seedlings as new growth beckons

Having begun to nurture the shoots for spring planting, the gardener turns her attention to the heartening prospect of an expanded habitat.

www.thesaturdaypaper.com.au

CommonEndeavour @commonendeavour.bsky.social · Sep 7

An important reminder (paywalled).

www.thesaturdaypaper.com.au/comment/topi...

The seven lessons of Nazi history

Occasionally something happens that turns our collective minds to history. That happened this week when Nazis dominated Australian headlines for possibly the first time since the end of World War II. ...

www.thesaturdaypaper.com.au

CommonEndeavour @commonendeavour.bsky.social · Aug 25

A book to read.

We don’t need to ostracise others just so that we can belong.

belonging.berkeley.edu/belonging-wi...

Recommended by the crew @ulurustatement.bsky.social

Belonging Without Othering

belonging.berkeley.edu

CommonEndeavour @commonendeavour.bsky.social · Jul 27

If you want more of a behaviour you reward (encourage) it. If you want less you punish (discourage) it.
You won’t get more people coming on board sooner by criticising them for coming on board later. You’ll just stop them coming on board in future.
Arguing about the centre seems like a distraction.

2 2

CommonEndeavour @commonendeavour.bsky.social · Jul 27

The Common Endeavour project grows from the idea that it might take a new political entity to get us to be “actually doing something”.
If you’re inclined to tilting at windmills for a good reason get in touch! And let others of a similar inclination know. Together we can. #auspol
commonendeavour.org

“In our conversation, Henry reaches back 40-odd years for a moment of political opportunity analogous to the present, to the transition from the policy inertia of the late 1970s to the reform era of the 1980s, when the political system, for a decade or so “realised that there might be advantage in actually doing something rather than just sitting around and having arguments about it”.

1

CommonEndeavour @commonendeavour.bsky.social · Jul 27

The governor general understands.

“Sam Mostyn says her experience chairing boards, as AFL commissioner and as the inaugural commissioner with the National Mental Health Commission taught her the importance of connection and understanding.”

www.abc.net.au/news/2025-07...

Inside the governor-general's first year of service and storytelling

Vowing to be a modern, optimistic and visible governor-general, Sam Mostyn has adopted a "culture of care" as a key focus of her term. So how has she done that over her first year in the job? And can ...

www.abc.net.au

CommonEndeavour @commonendeavour.bsky.social · Jul 25

Massive thanks to @allegraspender.bsky.social and her team for a fantastic tax reform Roundtable.

So many good speakers, so many good questions, so much valuable information in a wonderfully positive setting.

Also appreciate how the process respected people’s time. Impeccable time management! 😊

CommonEndeavour @commonendeavour.bsky.social · Jul 25

Terrific first session on corporate tax at the Tax Reform Roundtable organised by Allegra Spender MP.

One of the challenges: How do we make international investment more attractive without letting the small number of companies that make excess profits off the hook?

CommonEndeavour @commonendeavour.bsky.social · Jul 23

There's a new Common Endeavour journal post.

journal.commonendeavour.org/the-act-of-existence/

On a couple of things that political parties ought to consider: that truth is felt and not derived from knowledge or the news, and on the act of existence.

The act of existence

Two ideas that speak to how we understand our lives lived together: we feel truth, we don't get it from knowledge or news; and the sheer act of existence.

journal.commonendeavour.org

1

CommonEndeavour @commonendeavour.bsky.social · Jul 13

High conflict is dangerous and destructive but most conflict is not high conflict.

“The truth is, good conflict can help uncover opportunity and even create connection.”

Amanda Ripley and Hélène Biandudi Hofer

www.thegoodconflict.com

The truth is, good conflict can help uncover opportunity and even create connection. But that requires a mental shift: instead of thinking of conflict as a fight, approach it as a friction — necessary resistance that helps you get stronger and more resilient. It’s not about being the victim or the villain but rather a detective –– investigating the problem, identifying options, and focusing on what you can control.

1 1

CommonEndeavour @commonendeavour.bsky.social · Jul 12

An American Psychological Association keynote on fostering joy by cherishing intentional moments of connection.

We routinely underestimate the importance of joy. Glad to see it highlighted here.

“Emphasising the importance of #connection” - Amy Szarkowski bio

convention.apa.org/agenda/keyno...

Keynote Speakers | APA 2025 Convention

Join leading experts and innovators as they share their deep expertise on some of the most relevant topics in psychology today at the APA 2025 keynote sessions.

convention.apa.org

CommonEndeavour @commonendeavour.bsky.social · Jul 6

Lawrence Freedman in Foreign Affairs on the folly of thinking a short, sharp war is the solution to a problem - or even possible.

www.foreignaffairs.com/age-forever-...

In recent decades, many politicians and generals have planned for short wars but ended up getting long ones, the scholar Lawrence Freedman wrote this spring. Wars become intractable, he argued, when political and military objectives do not align. Combat rarely resolves the root causes of a dispute and cease-fires can become mere pauses that allow both sides to prepare for more fighting. “One of the great allures of military power is that it promises to bring conflicts to a quick and decisive conclusion,” Freedman wrote. Yet “in practice, it rarely does.”

1 1

CommonEndeavour @commonendeavour.bsky.social · Jul 5

“While we are here all we have is each other and this place that we might call ours.”

- Stan Grant

Writing about the importance of the stability that comes from having a home.

www.thesaturdaypaper.com.au/2025/07/05/u...

Understanding suburban sovereignty

For me, the great Australian novel is Patrick White’s The Tree of Man. I am not the first to say this: the story of Stan and Amy Parker as they build a new home in the wilderness is an Australian Gene...

www.thesaturdaypaper.com.au

CommonEndeavour @commonendeavour.bsky.social · Jun 30

A thought-provoking characterisation of beauty. Compare with the three basic needs of every person - safety, satisfaction, and connection to others - from the very first Common Endeavour journal post.

journal.commonendeavour.org/core-needs/

Core needs

One of my favourite meditations focuses on the core needs every person has for safety, satisfaction, and connection. For me, taking the time to sit quietly and gently remember the importance of these ...

journal.commonendeavour.org

CommonEndeavour @commonendeavour.bsky.social · Jun 30

In contrast to the “single flicker” of glamour: “the Beautiful offers us an invitation to order, coherence, and unity. When these needs are met, the soul feels at home in the world.”
- John O’Donohue

1