Ah Compromise or Not

This morning I was blessed to be in the presence of several of my students from the days of my pulpit ministry. One of them is active in the other political party - other than the one I'm active in. We had a brief and friendly conversation about it all. I want to share some of what I said and think with you.

What I think is that to save our America that we all love so dearly, we need to get back to the ways we once communicated. The various points of view are just that - points of view. I imagine a day when the people of various points of view can respectfully listen to each other, engage in civil conversation - and since no one can know it all, the group wisdom of all sides talking to each other therefore results in better solutions than any one "side" could come up with. Maybe you call that compromise, I call it intelligent.

I have experienced the huge jump of what happens in group wisdom over polarized people standing in corners looking away from each other.

Just because someone doesn't agree with me doesn't make them dumb or evil. People mostly are of honest opinion and not trying to do something dastardly. Yes, I know some are, but most aren't has been my experience. I can become wiser and more embracing of life when I can hear divergent points of view.

In my opinion, this is not just in politics or religion, but in all manner of human endeavors from cooking to gardening to quilting to parenting or whatever you can think of, I think this "new" fusion cooking, for example, is the result of chefs of different cuisines combining the tastes. One cuisine is not bad, just different from the other, and wow look what happens when we take some of this one and some of that one. One tiny example is Mexican pizza which one of our favorite restaurants makes so deliciously.

I pray that we all mature to be able to graciously listen to one another and shift our ideas a bit here and there as we come to understand other points of view from all kinds of people.

A closed mind leads to a screaming mouth that only alienates everyone, This week, let's make an effort to listen to others and consider things we've not considered,

God bless America. God bless our world. God bless all peoples. God bless you.