Where can we still ask open questions?

I had a casual conversation with someone close to me about a proposed law we both agreed was quite ridiculous.

He shrugged it off: " It's just a proposal. It will never happen."

I asked a simple questions. " But why is it proposed in the first place? And what if it actually does happen?

The atmosphere changed instantly.

"You always see things negatively" he said. "I feel positive about the future".

In that moment I recognized a familiar place. I felt it in my body, it still hurts. The corner where I have been put more than once over the past years.

The different one. The conspiracy thinker. The one with unusual perspectives.

And suddenly the conversation was no longer about the law.

It was about the category I had already been placed in.

When that happens, something shuts down. Not only in the conversation, but inside yourself. You start wondering where you can still ask questions without immediately being sorted into a camp.

Many of us recognize this moment.

We used to disagree with friends and family and still feel connected. Now certain questions change the atmosphere in seconds. People stop listening for what is being said. They listen for confirmation of the label they already assigned to the other.

So we adapt.

We avoid certain topics. We soften our questions. Or we stay quiet to keep the relationship comfortable.

Meanwhile something else happens quietly. More and more people feel conversations have become fragile. That curiosity has become risky. And many wonder the same thing:

Where can we still speak honestly without being labelled? We are still part of the same family, the same social circle, but how can we feel more connected again?

That question has been with me for years.

Not because I want to convince anyone of a particular view of the world. I believe something essential disappears when we can no longer stay in conversations with people who see things differently. When we can no longer bring in other information to address a certain topic.

Over time that question led to me to create something I now call the Meraviglia Programmes.

Not a place where everyone thinks the same. But as a place where people can practice staying in honest conversation again. A place where people can examine their own perceptions without immediately being categorised.