Dare To Disagree

Many of us want to show how enlightened we are.  We spout off new age rhetoric or feel good phrases.  We show the world just how much we know.  We often claim we are much more than we truly are.

Yet, do we really do as we think we do or are we disillusioned by the cloud of rhetoric we spew online and that which we give to those nearby.  Are we really practicing what we preach and portray or is it a facade that is a persona we give to the world.

Being vulnerable is not easy.  Just ask Brene Brown how vulnerability shows up and just how much it can take you down.  As a result, we hide our vulnerability with our puffed up words and actions.  We portray one thing to the world, while holding our true selves as a secret and hidden entity in our life.

If you want to test this thought, try reading social media postings from the people whom you disagree.  See if you can hold your tongue or your fingers from typing for 2 minutes, not wanting to obliterate the other person's thinking because you are right and they are wrong. See if you can have the same love and compassion for your fellow man that you portray every day to the people that vehemently disagree with you.

See if you can hear their anger and poison filled words and yet be okay knowing that this is their issue, not yours.  I know that is not easy to do.  I struggle with it as well just like most of us do.  The media and various issue groups use this to their advantage as they pit one person against another.  This is how they win.  This is how they hook people into following their news and political revolutions.

I think you do need to be careful that you don't immerse yourself in the rhetoric that seems hateful and full of poison because it can truly drive you insane.  There is far too much of this posted every day on social media and it is not good for society or humans as a whole.  We don't have to pick fights and take sides.  We can rise above this.

Sometimes the best thing that can be done is to just say nothing.  Allow the people to rant and rave all they want but if they don't have an audience, they will soon burn out.  They will be like a candle flame that consumes itself.

The media loves the people who are outside the lines because it emotionally engages those that follow the stories so they will be hooked for days and weeks to come.  It isn't all the media's fault though because the people who consume this stuff are just as much a part of the problem as the media or the ones spewing the rhetoric.

We owe ourselves a lot more in this world and a better experience of what it means to be a conscious individual.  We cannot say we love one another while calling each other all kinds of names and showing our hatred for those who dare to disagree.

We cannot say that we enlightened only if we have others in our lives that agree with us and what we think.  It is a shallow part of the pool and dangerous indeed when we only huddle with those that share the same water.

At the same time, being human requires us to learn how to be conscious and aware.  It requires that we learn what civility and respect is all about in life.  It means that even though we may disagree with others, we need to see the big picture and will this disagreement define our entire existence, or is there more common ground that we share with those that are unlike us.

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Blog Post And Images (c) 2016 by Don Shetterly

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