Some words from a book by Morton Kelsey:
"We cannot love people until we realize the uniqueness of other people. Each of us is unique, and we have many different ways of acting and valuing. Until we realize that it is natural for others to be different from us, it is very difficult to love them, particularly those whose point of view seems almost opposite to our own."
I was thinking about these words while watching the onslaught of negative posts (from both sides) on facebook both before and after the election. Why are we, as individuals, so intent on being right all the time, instead of putting any effort into understanding one another?
I'm exploring the ideas of nothing being right or wrong. This probably isn't going to make much sense to anybody outside of my head (which, of course, is all of you)... but that's it. What if there IS no such thing as right or wrong? Or good or bad?
What are we learning from people when we label their thoughts / opinions / worldviews as wrong? What kind of connections are we making with each other then?
Don't get me wrong... I've done my fair share of judging and labeling (specifically, regarding how women choose to birth, treat their babies, etc.) in my life. But I don't want to do that anymore. I don't want to judge other people. I don't want to label their choices as right or wrong / good or bad. I'm working on simply calling them "another person's choices" (or ideas, or values, or different ways of acting, or whatever).
And it is surprisingly easy to do that. And it makes me feel better and more connected to all of human consciousness because of it.
That is all.
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3 comments:
Love this! I found that reading "A Complaint-Free World" helped me to stop judging and labeling others...well I may not have stopped entirely judging, but it has helped me to stop talking about it. Which has made a huge difference in my feeling connected to others who have very differing opinions. http://www.amazon.com/Complaint-Free-World-Complaining-Enjoying/dp/0385524587
Gossiping is a good place to start. Just today I had a friend who wanted me to join in on a gossip session, I'm proud to say that I declined. It felt similar to turning down drugs or something else that peer pressure really can play a big part in.
I sometimes wonder how you get into my brain, but it's cool...in a not-right-or-wrong kind of way.
Very interesting! It's an acquired skill to love and respect and even enjoy people with opposing viewpoints on [insert viewpoint here]. There's probably a middle ground that you will settle into eventually, because the idea of nothing being wrong or bad will almost inevitably run into a roadblock if taken to the extreme. For example, some people believe others should be killed because of their religion or ethnicity. Hard to say that's not wrong. It doesn't necessarily mean they are evil, they might just be ignorant. Probably you are thinking of relatively benign disagreements (politics, etc) and not extreme moral "badness" (murder, theft, etc).
You sound like my husband, RJ.
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