Does anyone remember that old riddle? If so, you probably remember the answer – “a frog in a blender”. A nauseating mental image of a homogenous mixture landing somewhere between brown and gray. A picture for the many conversations between old friends that have landed in the metaphorical toilet in the past few years. Clashing viewpoints swirling around, destroying relationships, producing nothing but waste.
What happens when people stop listening to each other? What happens when intolerance rules every conversation, when our interactions become barefoot walks across a floor strewn with shards of broken glass? What happens when our self-righteous bias shatters a relationship? Is it worth it? What’s wrong with changing the subject, with focusing on the real human being in front of us, with finding something more productive to discuss? Is it really our job to convince others that we are infallible, and that they are not? There’s nothing wrong with holding firmly to what one believes. In fact, that has never been more important than it is today. But our convictions are not hammers. For everything there is a season.
Those “Crusader Rabbit” ears I so easily don. I need to lock them in a box and throw away the key.
