Frequently Asked Questions:

 

1. You’re retired and could be laying on the beach collecting social security. Why are you doing this?

Response: My brother gave me the answer to this one, telling me: “Dan, you are a teacher and always will be.” Having a teaching spirit means I can’t find out something and keep it to myself…I have to share it with others.

 

2. How has Gracious Inclusion made a difference in your life?

Response: Attitudes and perceptions of our surroundings are dynamic and in constant flux. For years I was not able to articulately explain why. But now looking back over the sixty-three years of my life and the thirty-six years of my teaching, I can see when I was going against or with Gracious Inclusion. By not practicing Gracious Inclusion I was tired, frustrated, and angry, but most of all afraid that all was falling to pieces and slipping away. Fighting, running or hiding are symptomatic of fear. Whereas, working with Gracious Inclusion created feelings of being united, giving a true sense of belonging. I could no longer be an accomplice to a system that fosters inclinations of separation, for the lies that conspire to separate could not stand against the truth that unites.  We can resist Gracious Inclusion and be in conflict or go with it and be at peace.  I chose peace— Awake and aware, acknowledge, accept, accommodate now and you will have no regrets. Gracious Inclusion expands and waits to be experienced.

 

3. If G.I. connects all things, why is it not always put to practice?

Response: It is out of a sense of “better than” that we separate and judge.  The idea that one can stand alone on his or her own two feet is false.  Put “I” in “to let” and you get toilet; put “I” in “run” and you get ruin. Thinking that things stand independently leads to judgment, oneupmanship and bullying. This attitude conflicts with Gracious Inclusion.

 

4. How does Gracious Inclusion disarm the Bully?

Response: It takes two to fight. There is a bully in each and every one of us at one time or another.  Gracious Inclusion leads us to find something good in the Bully so the Bully can find something good in you.  That’s reciprocity.  It’s not about you vs them, but being connected.  In a game of catch, you throw the ball, trusting it will be thrown back. We’re in this all together. This is Gracious Inclusion.

 

5. What if the Bully doesn’t throw the ball back to me?

Response: The ball was never yours to begin with, and you only hold it for a while. If you have trust, you will give trust; give the ball a toss. In Gracious Inclusion, the ball is always somewhere, and also part of something bigger.

 

6. How does the infinitely small connect to the infinitely large?

Response: Without the infinitely small the infinitely large would not be. The smallest of pieces make up the whole—without them, there would be no whole. Out of one all come, small but many are we. In reciprocity everything is connected, allowing us to think beyond ourselves.  Think smaller and you will be bigger.