[Seek] Perspective

[Advent 6]

I don't believe the same things you do about a lot of things.

We all have views on politics, religion, vaccination, education, breastfeeding, parenting, even whether or not a movie or tv show is good. I often hold conflicting, confusing views on things, having an ability to see issues from more than one side. I can share some opinions with you while completely differing from you on others.

Everyone has different views, and that's ok.

I think we've lost that perspective. Every day I witness people passionately trying to convince others to see things their way, to change their minds about something. Even when I state "this is what I believe" to let people know where I stand or "this is the impact this has on this specific population" to clarify why something may be hurtful - without meaning to convince anyone to agree with me - arguments erupt instead of civil discussions. This breaks my heart.

When did we get to the point where most people choose anger over understanding, compassion, or just plain accepting that someone can have a differing view ? When did it become ok to negatively judge anyone who sees the world through a different lens than the one you're looking through?

What if we listened for the sake of understanding a person's point of view, with no other agenda?
What if we were then able to share our differing ideas about the subject with acceptance of our right to a contrasting viewpoint? What might we learn?

I can choose to educate people about the facts of a situation or inform people of my opinion, but I have no control over whether or not someone accepts the facts or agrees with my thinking.

We are billions of people living on the same planet, all with a unique perception of what our world is.

We can agree on some basic things, such as the molecular makeup of water, but have widely differing perceptions on the taste of water. Baltimore, MD water tastes vastly different from Bristol, CT water, which tastes vastly different from Flint, MI water. Some water is refreshing and essential. Other water can be deadly. My view that tap water is preferable over bottled water only holds up in one of those three places.

We don't just need to agree to disagree, because that disagreement often comes with anger and judgement. We can agree to accept that not many things are black and white and that others' points of view may be just as valid as our own. Or that a person can be blind to how wrong they are, as is often the case with racism, sexism, homophobia, and the like, and there's little we can do to change their minds without first changing their hearts, which can't be done in anger. 

I might have different views than you about many things, but I hope we can agree that we should listen more than we speak and learn what we can while doing so, even if we disagree.