Two-ply monologue 

On a late summer evening we went for a walk along the river, and sat on a bench to read some Philosophy of Freedom and share our first thoughts.  We let our studies deepen in quietness and reflection, each in our own individual manner of the moment, with the help of the late afternoon sun, the birds, and the splashing of the moorehens and pedalos. 

We got up from the bench and continued to walk for a while and began a conversation on further insights which were coming up.  Jean-Christophe said something, and I added my strand, in harmony and in line with what he said - and then he replied, and so on.  With each 'reply' I could feel a new understanding lighting up in me and I knew how to add and twist in my strand.  The sun was still gold, the shadows were lengthening, our understanding was deepening and coming alive within us and between us, and it felt pretty good!

It occured to me that what we were doing was like creating a two-ply wool where two strands are 'plied' or twisted together to create a 'yarn', a continuous strand of twisted threads.  We weren't dialoguing, we were plying, we were ap-plying the individual strands of our understanding and re-plying to the strand of the other to create a monologue.  We were actively creating one understanding together - without arguing, debating, questioning, opposing or getting lost in our own individual world of understanding - we were offering what we had to the creation of the 'yarn', allowing our individual strands to interact with and support one another to form a stronger and more supple understanding together.