The country…indeed the entire world…seems more divided than ever these days. And those on one side of the divide are generally loathe to express any sense of understanding or respect for those on the other.
The dividing issue of the moment is “genuflection.” Yea, you read that right…the nation is divided as ever on the issue of “knee taking.”
And with Trump at the helm, next it could be “ring kissing”…but I digress…
I guess I really don’t need to reiterate the facts of this current brouhaha. I posted a bit about that the other day.
The intention of this post is rather to get at the heart of the matter.
What is really dividing us? I mean REALLY!
I wrote a post earlier in the year entitled, The Tale of Two Americas. That one alluded to the idea of inclusion versus exclusion as the seminal issue of deep division…
But is that really it?
Or, is it something even more sinister??
Perhaps those questions are too hard to answer in a less than thousand word blog post.
So, let’s come at it from a different angle…
Since the divisions themselves are so plainly apparent, perhaps the better question is, what will enable us to bridge them?
Acknowledging a few basic facts could help…
Like the fact that we’re really all made from the same stuff…
And have the same basic desires…
And live on the same revolving rock…
Are you catching my drift?
Each side of the divide thinks that it has the answer about how the world ought to operate. In fact, each side is entirely convinced on that issue…
I’ve made the point repeatedly in this blog that neither really does. That’s the chief impact blinder this blog seeks to eliminate…the idea of absolute rightness…
When it comes to things like politics and religion…
there simply is none…
There is no “right answer.”
And guess what we’re divided most about?
Yep, you got it, politics and religion.
So, the direction I’d like this post to point to and encourage is one of stepping back from the fray and showing a bit of genuine genuflection out of respect for the fact that we’re all humans who deserve the right to be wrong.
After all, being wrong about something can ultimately lead to rightness…
just ask Edison.
We humans crave rightness…so much so that we’re willing to make up pretty elaborate stories about the way the world works and then dedicate our lives to them…
even die for them.
The real issue then might be just that…the competing stories we make up to prove that we’re right.
Are these competing stories really so important that we’re willing to risk the destruction of an entire society over them?
I seriously don’t think so.
[…] last post addressed the issue of the need to be right as the one that might be at the heart of the growing […]