This is the final Sunday of our “Courageous Peace Witness” series. It’s been a long one, extending back to Labor Day weekend. Of those theme words, “Witness” has gotten the least airtime. It’s been on my mind just recently.
Last week I hiked and camped with two college friends in Zion National Park. We revived our friendship a couple years ago and have committed to quarterly Zoom calls and a hiking trip every two years in a beautiful location. Grand Canyon, check. Zion, check. Joshua Tree is top of the list for 2028.
Along the way we have reflected on the energizing dynamics of three-person conversation. It’s the smallest group where a speaker has multiple listeners. It’s the largest group where there can be only one conversation at a time. On a single file trail, the main speaker can walk in the middle so the other two can best hear. If someone needs to daydream or check out a bit, the conversation doesn’t depend on them to keep going.
The organizational consultant Peter Block uses the triad, the small group of three, as the building block for community. Along with speaker and listener, he encourages the role of witness. The witness is a silent observer of the speaker/listener interaction. Their presence is a reminder that every exchange impacts a wider community. They pay careful attention not just to what is said, but to how it is said and what is unsaid. At the end of a speaker/listener exchange they may offer some observations of what struck them personally about what they witnessed. The presence of the witness changes, enhances, enriches, expands a dialogue into something greater.
All three of us were a little too chatty to play the pure witness role, although being witnesses to the vast beauty of a place like Zion leaves a lasting imprint. And this isn’t the active kind of witness I initially associate with being a courageous peace witness. But it’s the kind of witness on my mind right now. It’s the kind of witness in which the witness undergoes an internal change, which then gets externalized in ways that are hard to measure. And surely that has something to do with courage and peace.
Joel