. . . .
To me, all of these reminiscences point to a notion that I call
"generous reading." It might also be called "generous listening." We
read or hear someone say something interesting but notice something
that seems wrong. In today's argument culture we are all habituated to
leaping on "that seems wrong" and, thus, too often, derailing our
conversations into Punch-and-Judy shows. What if, instead, we learned
to bracket "that seems wrong." Not forget it, mind you. If something
is genuinely wrong, it represents a problem that will have to be dealt
with. The suggestion is that we start by asking, "What was it that
made this interesting?" and deal first with the question, "What can we
do with that?"
