Photo of Joe Fafard via [Regina’s important Prairie Dog magazine](https://www.prairiedogmag.com/2019-03-28/what-just-happened/)
I was struck by a picture of the late, great Joe Fafard in the Prairie Dog yesterday. He's sitting at a table, looking up at the camera, with a paintbrush in hand. In front of him is a colourful sketch that he's working on.
This morning, while reading the news, I kept seeing that image in my head while I was reading about the latest manoeuvrings with Brexit, another outrage by the American president, our local Tories ignoring climate change, and on and on. Somehow, that image of an artist and a colourful sketch tempered my anger and outrage. I started thinking of my 'enemies' as people.
What would happen if world leaders, especially those who we disagree with the most, sat down with a set of paints and a piece of fresh, blank paper and make a sketch? What would they draw? What would it look like?
Here's my guess: There would be some beauty in whatever they drew.
I don't believe that Scott Moe or Andrew Scheer or Donald Trump or even that anti-Muslim Australian Senator would draw grey storm clouds, dark volcanoes and fiery demons.
What if our leaders started every important summit with 30 minutes of painting and another half hour of sharing their work with the rest of the room? I imagine they'd relax just a little bit and maybe even start to listen to each other.
What if you did this with your landlord before a lease negotiation? Or your boss before an employee review?
Look, I still disagree strongly with Moe and Scheer. But it helps me to think of them as human beings with a sense of beauty that is also universally human. That same sense of beauty that I have.
Please steal this idea. Let's bring people together, one little picture at a time.