Behind the Easel

  

 When I paint a portrait of someone's dream, I think about that dream.I squint. I turn it all around inside my head and spread it out to examine it's essence. In painting Sheriff Hill's Dream Portrait I have done a lot of thinking and examining. In pondering the issue of equipping youth to be able to make wise choices, I've reduced it to at least one major component: Conversations. Defined as" the exchange of ideas", I think it is a core consideration.

 How can we better engage young people in meaningful conversations that would empower them to be able to sift the valuable from the detrimental? How can dialogue be facilitated so that deductions clearly frame life's choices?

The painting for Sheriff Hill is my meager offering.It is my desire that perhaps it could be used as a "conversation piece" to engage meaningful dialogue about life, friendhips and choices

At the risk of sounding "old", sometimes I wonder what the future holds as I consider the break down in the art of conversation - making. It's my opinio that the threads of conversation are what bind relationships and forge bridges in generational and cultural differences. This opinion is drawn in raising my own (5) children and observing the power conversations hold in strengthening the "ties that bind". The interesting thing is that it is the seemingly insignificant conversations -about the trivia and mundane of life that then becomes the bridge to weightier, more significant "life" conversations.  These little conversations become the support on which the big conversations are built upon. Here in lies one of the challenges. How can today's families strengthen these "little" conversations in face of time demands and tech seductions? It is to this end of building support systems of everyday conversing that I'm including this interesting little resource list of "talk" topics. They are simply random ideas to get kids talking (...not texting?)
  I hope you enjoy it as much as I did!

Family Table : Conversation Starters 
 I've been gathering my own list too. What are YOUR ideas? I'd love to hear them.

Posted in: inspire