Former President Jimmy Carter celebrated his 100 th birthday earlier this month. It’s a goal few of us will ever reach. Even fewer will get to spend four of our years as the leader of the free world.

The years have been mostly kind to President Carter even if opinion polling at times has not. In politics, blame is assigned quickly even if not appropriately. Given time to understand actions, context, and external exogenous events, history tends to judge a bit more fairly and in context.

President Carter has lived almost as much of his life as a former President as he did preparing tobe one. The part of his life not serving in the Navy nor living in the Georgia Governor’s Mansion or White House has been lived in Plains, Georgia. It’s a remarkable little town, with a collection of remarkable residents – one of whom just happens to be a former President.

For roughly forty years President Carter made himself a draw for visitors to come to Plains. He taught Sunday School for hundreds who would travel to Southwest Georgia about 48 out of 52 weeks per year during most of that time. I was fortunate enough to not only attend several of those lessons, but to get to spend quality time with him, his late wife Rosalynn, and a small group of others several times seven to eight years ago.

When pictures of my first visit with the Carters appeared on social media, I got one rather consistent question from my longtime friends: He knows you’re a Republican, right?

For those less than familiar with my political origin stories, let me add color to that question. In the second grade I was Gerald Ford in our elementary school debate. Four years later I was Ronald Reagan in the debate for my sixth grade class.

I lost that first election by a landslide. This was still Georgia after all, and in 1976 we were “Carter Country”. Much of the South was, too. Times and political alliances have changed a lot since then.

But it was no surprise to the Carters nor anyone else at the table that first evening that I was a Republican political operative and blogger. Nor did that stymie the conversation. It was actually quite interesting and candid, on both sides. I was told afterwards that we talked a lot longer than the usual time allotted for dinner guests the night before a Sunday School lesson. We asked each other some direct questions about the state of the world and politics. The timing of this was the 2016 Presidential Primaries. Donald Trump was on his way to up-ending the Republican establishment. Bernie Sanders came within a few superdelegates of doing the same thing to the Democrats.

We both knew the world was changing at an ever increasing pace. While that wasn’t the sole purpose nor topic of our conversation, I will say that during that part of it, both of us were doing the best we could to understand the views of the other. We both wanted context. We asked a lot of “why’s”. The goal wasn’t to persuade but, again, to understand.

One of the least valued traits of our current political environment is to try to understand the other side. When there is common ground on where we’re trying to go, it’s easier to have an honest debate about how it would be best to get there. That is what our politics was once about, and can be again.

I was told another story about the Carters on one of those visits that has stuck with me, as it adds to the answer of “He knew you were a Republican, right?”. The Carters once hosted Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat at their home in Plains. Almost two decades after leaving the White House, President Carter was still very invested in finding peace for the Middle East.

The Carters still live in the same home they built in 1960. It’s a fine home, but it would fit modestly in any small southern town. Arafat, sitting in their living room at one point looked around and said something to the effect of “But where is the house where you live?”. He couldn’t believe an American leader would be living in a simple mid-1900’s ranch home.

President Carter knew very well who Arafat was before sitting down with him. He knew I wasn’t aligned with his party, either. But he offered his time and counsel so that we both might better understand each other’s positions. In my case, he helped me get out of the politics of the moment, and re-focus on the bigger, longer picture ahead.

We’ll have another President in the White House in January. Roughly half of the country will be upset by who wins.

For our country to continue to fulfill its promise and potential, we need to start having more conversations with those we disagree. If we can persuade, that would be great. It’s more simple – even necessary right now – that we all first seek just to understand.