Common Purpose – Build Bridges – Amalgamated Amalgamations

Creating Opportunities to Say “Hello!”

I love our backyard! I have created an oasis that provides me multiple levels for entertaining and hosting, but because it is such a sanctuary when we are back there, no one knows we are there.

To combat the isolation of our own making, we have moved 2 chairs out to our front lawn and sometimes we will sit out there. Continue reading “Creating Opportunities to Say “Hello!””

Nine Ways to Use Music to Connect

Music may be the food of love, but it is also a universal way to connect with others.

Music is a great way to find like minded people in your area. There is plenty of research linking making music with improved cognition, connection between the hemispheres of the brain, and language processing, but music may help us read emotions in sounds and in each other. Whether you want to make music or just listen to it, here are some ways that music can help connect us.

Continue reading “Nine Ways to Use Music to Connect”

Our Vision

At a time when politics is polarized, conversation is via text, families are dispersed, and people live alone longer, Americans are at times lonely & without connections. The challenge is how to create connection opportunities. Amalgamated Amalgamations is an interactive community of people with ideas, experiences, and thoughts on creating and building connections with family, friends, and even strangers.

Introduction – What’s Here and Why

Why does this website exist?

I’ve always been interested in things that strengthen the community. That ranges from political organizing in my 20s (aimed at providing stable housing and keeping neighborhoods working as a communities) on to ongoing efforts to get folks together for potlucks, hikes, dance parties, family reunions and the like.

Recently I noticed that a variety of political and social commentators have names a strong network of friends as a key antidote to political craziness, social media manipulation, and even some negative health effects.

I agree and have argued the same. I’ve thought I’ve trying to add what I’ve learned to the pot.

What finally tipped this this website from concept to reality?

Build Bridges – Resource Links

Random list of possible resources for bridging political divides

Empathy
- Powerful internal training video from Cleveland Clinic
- All That We Share
Persuasion:
- How We Can Reduce Prejudice with a Conversation
- Our Culture of Contempt: The problem in America today is not incivility or intolerance. It’s something far worse.
  - “What we need is not to disagree less, but to disagree better. And that starts when you turn away the rhetorical dope peddlers — the powerful people on your own side who are profiting from the culture of contempt. “
- talking to people ftf is the best way to convince – find link
- Conservatives’ Love Of Nostalgia Can Be Used To Promote Liberal Values
  - That’s a fairly irritating way to put it. Perhaps there are only ‘values’ which are not dissimilar across the spectrum.
  - From the article:
    “A large portion of the political disagreement between conservatives and liberals appears to be disagreement over style, and not content,” they write in the Journal of Personality and Social Psychology.
Dialog:
- Reddit – Change My View
People who changed their life (love beats hate):