So, every once in a while I put up a request sheet at work. It is just to kind of feel out the house and see what they liked and didn't like and what they want to try that I haven't made them yet. It is normally pretty easy for me to accommodate most of it and I get a kick out of seeing what they write. This time was a little less harmonious than the others. People crossed out other peoples suggestions and wrote comments to the side. So last night before I announced the meal I talked to them about the list and being respectful of eachother and how I needed to know everyone's feed back and the list needs to be a safe place. What it comes down to is that we need to be able to have different points of view and still get along.
That is America right now and I blame Facebook and the internet in general. Whatever happened to agreeing to disagree? Why can't we have different opinions and still be civil to eachother? Partly it is because of online communication. Instead of having public discourse now if someone post something we don't agree with or doesn't like what we have to say we "block" them and they don't exist to us anymore. That is not how life works. You can't just surround yourself with people that just echo your own opinions and pretend descenting opinions just don't exist. That is how we elected Trump. Both sides decided the other side was crazy and sat sat in a room with their yes friends and smelled their own farts. Their is no compromise in our government anymore and it is creeping in to daily life for everyone.
One of my very best friends from college has turned in to a Paleo dieting CrossFit-er. I take great offense to Paleo diet as a direct affront to my lively hood and evolution in general and the combination of Paleo and CrossFit in my opinion is the Scientology of diet and exercise. It's like a cult and you can't talk to them about anything but that and so they become alienated from everyone outside of that world. Now, while it saddened me to hear this (and annoyed me when he tried to convert me for three days) did I just say fuck it you're not my friend anymore? Fuck no. He is still my friend and we still text eachother regularly because our relationship is not now, nor has it ever been, based on the fact that we agree upon everything all the time. We need to have dissenting opinions in our lives to see things from more than one angle.
So my challenge to the world is, make friends with somebody that has beliefs that are not your own. Go out and get coffee with someone and argue about something and at the end shake their hand and agree to disagree. Don't put yourself in a little protected box and hide from dissention, embrace it. Arguing your side will either strengthen your resolve or help you open your mind to a new way of thinking. Honest, frank discussions by people with differing views promotes understanding of eachother and that is something we are in desperate need of these days.
