Do I have to be BOTH an Activist and a Bridge-Builder?

My conversation with Mónica Guzmán. And our first book award!

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We are excited to have won our first book award for Beyond the Politics of Contempt: Practical Steps to Build Positive Relationships in Divided Times. It’s The Literary Titan Book Award. Literary Titan reviewed our book recently. It’s an honor for me and my co-authors, Doug and Becky, and also all of you who have supported us. Thank you.

In presenting our book at libraries, bookstores, and other event, we continue to reflect on its themes. In this post, I wanted to expand on a section that talks about activism and bridge-building. Mónica Guzmán is the author of I Never Thought of It That Way- How to Have Fearlessly Curious Conversations in Dangerously Divided Times, and her endorsement is on our book’s front cover.

Here’s what she said about activism and bridge-building during a public lecture at Dartmouth College in 2024.

“Dialogue without activism can be like ‘naval gazing’ — excessive self-contemplation, an intellectual exercise. Yet activism without dialogue? It’s ‘reckless, uninformed, and doomed to fail.’”

—Mónica Guzmán

I recently sat down with Mónica to unpack activism, bridge-building and how they can work together. I always learn a lot from Mónica and am grateful for her insights. Here are a series of bite-sized clips from our interview.

What’s the role of activists in our society?

Activists play an extremely healthy role. They say “Look at This! We’ve got to do something!”

What’s the role of bridge-builders in our society?

A bridge-builder is… the convener, the moderator, the one that insures that different communities of thought can actually see each other now and then.

Do people need to be both activists and bridge-builders? Can we be one or the other?

We don’t all need to be BOTH activists and bridge-builders- -we just need both types in our ecosystem. We can coexist.

Advice for activists— What do activists need to watch out for? What blind spots exist?

The signals that are coming to you (about the other side) may not necessarily be accurate— so be sure to check in with the primary source of others’ hearts and minds.

The world is on fire - How can I possibly choose to be a bridge-builder? I need to preserve all of my energy to be an activist.

Bridge-building: This is how you put the fire out- -not just the fire out in the world but the fire in you.

The fire of passion- -that’s a great fire. The fire of fear and doom- that’s a bad fire (that makes us less powerful).

If we can’t talk to each other, we can’t cool things down, and if we can’t cool things down, the fire will keep burning.

Advice for bridge-builders— How to talk with activists?

In talking with activists… Go where their passion is— find a way to cross that bridge to how they think about things. The activist will feel heard and seen by you. You can then share why you feel passionate— and what you are concerned about.

Bridge-builders can use the same skills in talking with activists that we use with those we disagree with on contentious political issues.

Know yourself, know your values, be curious, connect, ask a lot of questions, help them feel “heard.” Then you can explain your passion for bridge-building and why you feel it is so needed right now.

I concluded from my conversation with Mónica that both activists and bridge-builders play critical roles in our society and that both are needed, although each of us doesn’t need to play both roles (unless we want to). We most important is to use curiosity to understand and respect each other for the roles we have chosen to play.

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