I am writing a novella about a series of fictional characters who try to implement many of the ideas discussed on this blog. It’s titled Forgive and Take and here is a synopsis of it. I’d love your feedback.
Forgive and Take
Mike is bright, energetic, and full of ideas he never follows through on. Lisa is smart and disciplined with a long list of successes. Their chance meeting leads to a plan to improve society by teaching people how to judge each other better.
Lisa wants to promote a clinical way for everyday people to judge each other called the Care Aware Index. It replaces name-calling with specific, feedback about how people perceive each other designed to start useful dialogue. Mike had a similar idea for people to review each other, plus he wants to set up workshops to practice social skills so trained inter-actors can intervene in social emergencies.
Before they get started, though, Lisa asks Mike to get some family heirlooms from an uncle she doesn’t like. Mike sees Lisa’s discipline and mentorship as a last chance to make good on his unrealized potential. He drives out in the country and meets her uncle George. The man is unpleasant to be around, but not intolerable. Mike returns with the heirlooms, and a lot of questions about Lisa.
The basis of their project is centered on giving useful feedback. Soon, though, he worries that Lisa is unreceptive to his feedback. Or is this just another of his excuses to quit working on a promising project? By now he put in a lot of energy and passed on other opportunities. He has been all in from the beginning, but now is full of doubt.
Forgive and Take is a comic tale about the difficulty of turning a big idea into practical action. Follow these fictional characters on the real life blog Participastory.com where many of the same ideas are being discussed and developed.
What do you think?