@atheist I agree. We went on our honeymoon in Victoria, BC. It's a great city and one can actually go there on foot from Lopez. Walk on the ferry here, go to Friday Harbor, change Ferries to the Canadian boat which goes to Sidney. Finally a shuttle to Victoria.

How interesting, @resserts! Was there something in particular that got you interested in mediating, or is it something you've always had in your nature?

serious work

@Lauren, I actually had little idea what it entailed when I started, other than I knew it involved negotiation and compromise to reach agreement on disputes, but the exact process was a mystery. A friend of mine and I had talked about doing mediation volunteerism a few years ago, but this last autumn the opportunity arose (although my friend had a scheduling conflict and couldn't do it): local training for unique combination mediation (basic and parenting), provided by one of the more sought-after trainers (and there aren't many people certified to train in the state to begin with, which makes availability especially difficult), and there was a grant so the price of training dropped from $1,000–$1,500 per student to just $100 with a two-year commitment (making it a lot more affordable). What I found in the training, not being a real "people person" in general, was that I'm far better at it than I expected, and I'm looking forward to mediating on a regular basis. And these are transferable skills, which can be used in the workplace, within the family, etc., whenever conflicts arise.

@resserts, I find what you're doing to be very noble and definitely much needed in our society where we have such a "drive'em into the ground" mentality instead of aiming for win-win (I know that expression is over-used but I can think of a substitute).

I also didn't realize how much was required to do it so I'm even more impressed. And how wonderful to find out that it's something you're innately suited for! Best wishes with it.

@resserts thats pricey tuition for a volunteer job! Maybe not being a people person will help you look at both sides objectively and find the middle ground

@btroje, yeah, kind of expensive without the grant. I can't remember exactly how much it would have been, but somewhere above $1,000 but less than $1,500. Fortunately I didn't need to she'll out that much. (The training was technically open to non-volunteers, too, if there had been seats available, and the price to them was $500 apiece, but there was no space available. There were several companies that were hoping to send people to this training, though, from outside the area, giving some idea of the value of what was offered [on six days across three alternating weekends].)

@btroje, as for my personality, it isn't much of a consideration because we only mediate and remain neutral, so it's really a no-dog-in-the-fight situation. We just ask questions, facilitate conversation, try to identify points of conflict, needs that aren't being met, etc., and let them do the work of solving their own problems. We can't make recommendations or suggest a course of action (it's actually illegal to do so), so we just massage the conversation, ask open-ended questions, and so forth. There's a lot to it, really, but it's not the sort of thing that requires I be an amazingly charismatic persuader. So, it takes some of the pressure off.

@resserts I think what you describe is another way of saying what I meant.

@atheist at least we should have a real election where most people vote not just half or whatever those numbers were

@macrobius I read with autoedit. SInce I am no longer taking tests I don't memorize a lot but I thought it was 26% or something close to that that voted trump. anyone feel free to correct me. I just filed the facts as no where near enough to be anything close to a reliable representation of the population

@macrobius now you can see why I wanted to forget it