It would be nice to think that choices come with guarantees. Sometimes we start there, but sooner or later life has ways of disabusing us of such notions. That said, it’s not unreasonable to expect choices to have impacts, consequences, likely outcomes. Today, the news is full of these kinds of considerations. When people observe events that they call “shocking but not surprising”, they are talking about the complex space in which choices have outcomes that are discernibly related, but which can still be unanticipated in their particulars. This Sunday, in our ongoing exploration of “common good”, we’ll continue to probe possible ways we can choose to think, act and trust that can nudge the trajectories of our human interactions away from distancing and antagonism and toward respectful engagement and peace-building. Sometimes it starts with how we say “hello”…