{"product_id":"2940151287135","title":"Re-Conciliation: The Hidden Hyphen","description":"Reconciliation is an easy word to say, smooth and flowing, speaking itself almost as gracefully as a dance. Why, then, when we try to live out the word, do we often – perhaps usually – find it moving in quite a different way, more like a karate match than a dance? \u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eThe word is a much sharper one than it seems, for there is a hyphen hidden away in it. Re-conciliation. The “conciliation” part of the word is a cousin to the word “council” and carries the sense of “together.” The “re-” part, however, implies a break. Gathering together has to be done again in the face of some kind of break, some kind of relationship-disaster. A wound has already been given and taken somewhere, somehow, even though we may not know exactly where or what it is – the first karate-chop, perhaps. \u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eRe-conciliation: with the emergence of that hidden hyphen the word no longer flows smoothly. It is a razor’s edge, painful, dangerous, cutting; a narrow ridge along which we walk, dizzied by the headlong fall-away of the land to both sides of us; a tightrope on which we desperately balance – all uncomfortable images and all true.","brand":"Pendle Hill Publications","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":47068971827440,"sku":"2940151287135","price":2.99,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0737\/7593\/9824\/files\/2940151287135_p0.jpg?v=1764008371","url":"https:\/\/shop-qa.barnesandnoble.com\/products\/2940151287135","provider":"Barnes \u0026 Noble (DEV)","version":"1.0","type":"link"}