In a world where not much surprises me these days, I’ll admit that I’ve been very surprised and saddened by the circus that has become our next presidential election.
I intentionally do not watch the news, because I prefer not to have the negativity floating in my head that seems to be on a continual news loop. For someone who was once upon a time a Broadcast Journalism major, it speaks volumes. Around the time of the Sandy Hook shootings, it finally became ‘too much’ for me.
Life is so full of ups and downs, and keeping focused on the positive and the silver lining of life is important to me. So I quit news cold turkey. Now, I don’t see a lot, outside of what scrolls through on my Facebook feed, which generally isn’t ‘too much’, but lately it has become so.
If you know me then you know I rarely discuss politics, or religion. It’s the two subjects where people can really get crazy if someone has a different viewpoint than them, so I avoid it. (Unless you are someone whom I know can have an intelligent conversation and the respect to agree to disagree if our views don’t match.)
When I see people blaming each other for this, that and the other- it makes me sad. Why? First, because it creates a larger divide amongst the people. We are ALL human beings- we ALL matter.
I posted the following on Facebook- it sums up how I feel:
Love, Compassion, Integrity, Respect, Working TOGETHER towards the common good. ALL of those things matter to me personally.
Solutions to problems- I don’t care how big they are- will NEVER come by pointing fingers, placing blame and creating division.
If WE are not part of the solution then WE are part of the problem. Maybe WE should take a long hard look in the mirror at ourselves, be honest with who we have become and what we ‘put out there’ and realize that in order for real change to happen- it starts with US, with loving and accepting people right where they are.
We can only understand things based on our personal lens in which we view the world- No one has that same lens, because they are each based on our own personal experiences.
If someone else has a different experience in life than yours- even if you were at the same place at the same time- the different perspective doesn’t make one right and the other wrong- one more valid than the other- it makes them different- nothing more. We don’t have to ‘understand’ someone else’s experience- it’s theirs, but we should respect it.
Food for thought..