We live in a country that honors free speech, and that is wonderful. But what I’ve noticed is that people get overly judgmental and tend toward one extreme opinion or the other. And so we have great polarity in our country. We’re like two boxers in our respective corners, occasionally coming out to battle each other, then separating and returning to our corners for a time. We talk, but seldom to each other. And even then, we don’t listen to the other’s viewpoint. We react with a preconceived notion. We seldom come to a meeting of minds. We are, then, a divided country, perhaps even several divided countries within these supposedly United States.
We have our opinions, about abortion, about same sex marriage, about our political affiliation, about gun violence, about police brutality, about our religious beliefs, about race and racism, about diet, about sexual orientation, about our next door neighbor’s choice of car. And we build walls around these opinions and beliefs. Solid, high walls, complete with barbed wire on top. A political campaign begins and we know who we’ll vote for right from the start. And nothing will convince us otherwise. From politicians down to the trash collector, we ignore nuance. We become rigid in our thinking, because it’s safest to do so. It’s safest because we don’t have to [Read more…] about The Need for Nuance