You Have To Be Completely Wrong For Me To Be Right
Melissa Jensen
Ah, election season….This is one of my favorite times. No, I am not crazy. I love the theater of it, the marketing on the highest scale, the rapid pace of keeping up, the twisting, the spin…the what are they going to come up with next. I find it completely fascinating how two people can look at the exact same set of facts and see two completely different things.
What I don’t like is the apathy and the utter disdain for those who don’t wholly agree with us. I find it frustrating that people don’t understand how we all look at things through a different paradigm. We each have a different pair of glasses through which we see the world – forged by life experiences, our passions, our own personalities, our upbringing, our circumstances or by the trials of those we care deeply about. It would be impossible for each one of us to see the world in the exact same way. You can’t tell someone “Just look harder and you will see what I see.” They never will. Even with the greatest empathy, their experience will never be the same as yours. It can’t be forced and it can’t be rammed down someone’s throat. The more people are pushed, the more they want to defend their position. They back into their corner unable to hear what you are saying, just trying to think of the next clever thing that you won’t hear anyway. The best negotiations start with what we can agree on, that thread, however small it is, that holds us together. When we cut people out or cut people off because they don’t completely agree, we are taking away our own chance to grow, to understand.
As we watch the viciousness until November 6th finally rolls around, try to remember it isn’t all or nothing, neither party is out to ruin our country and no matter how much you wish it would, bashing those who don’t agree with you will not win your argument.
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Melissa Jensen
Melissa is a native of the Greater St. Louis region. She is addicted to anything Google, and cannot understand why motion activated paper towel dispensers never see her hands.
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