This is Hard but Worth It
Dear Other Person on the Internet:I just can't understand how you can possibly hold the opinion you hold that is so wildly different than the thing I feel so strongly about.
I mean, all of the people I find super cool, and those I respect most in the world, hold the same(ish) opinion that I do. The people who hold your opinion annoy me.
Your stand on this issue goes against the foundations of everything I am. When you add up the way I was raised plus (or minus) my response to it plus the voices I gravitated toward in college plus my current work place dynamic plus the opinions of the facebook friends I wish I knew better minus the opinions of the facebook friends I wish I had the nerve to delete plus the news channel I prefer multiplied by the opinion of the person I never disagree with on anything plus the way I want my children to see me compounded by the thing I feel is the easiest to believe, you simply cannot come to any conclusion but mine.
I want to enlighten you, I do. But I'm over it. It's come to the point where I just have to write this angry blog post that my supporters will adore. The people I love who disagree with me never gently tell me so. Therefore, I kind of forget they exist. Surely everyone thinks like I do. And surely the ones who don't will either see the light in this blog post or they will be so dumbfounded by my brilliant, unrelenting argument that they will, for goodness sake, keep quiet about their craziness.
This is strange. I wrote, "I feel so much better after venting this." But then five minutes later, I wasn't so sure. and then two hours after that I thought of that one person I deeply love who feels like you do about this weighty matter. And I want to try again...I don't think I agree with you, but I respect you. I get that all the parts of you that have come together into this particular notion, these things are not the sum of you. They are variables, hanging on to the sturdy, eternal youness of you. I can hold hands with that.
If you step my way gently, and I look up a bit, I think we become beautiful. It's inspiring when disagree-ers agree. It is magic when they love.
You can't imagine how deeply I believe what I believe. You can't change it. It's at the core of me. And yet, what if. What if I believe the world is flat even while it's spinning? What if I believe right but I'm saying it wrong? What if you were meant to ask me that, and I was meant to ask you this, and the space between the questions looks exactly the same? I pull one way. You pull the other. There's no pretending, I guess. We may have to keep this one on the table from now until one of us dies. But just look at the table and how there's room for each of us, from now until nobody wonders anything about this anymore. I don't want to leave the table. I'm in if you are. Let's show them how it's done.
Power of a Hug