I remember being told to be quiet in church. Told how to be polite. How not to be rude. Steered in certain directions. Then as I got older, I was told to make my own decisions. Be an individual. Have my own opinions. Then as an adult, it was like it went back to childhood. Next thing you know, you’re being told how to think again.
I grew up around all boys. I understood boys. How they thought, felt, acted. I knew what a boy across the room was thinking without him ever saying a word. And it was usually about sports or boobs. I mean, what else was there? I never understood the difficulties and types of hard challenges that girls faced every day just being a girl. The way their mind worked. What was important to them. How fragile and soft they were. “That time of the month!” I never understood any of this until I had daughters. My daughters changed my entire life, starting with my thinking. I chose to be the best dad I could possibly be. By doing so, I had to begin to understand how a little girl worked. But the only way I was going to achieve this was to forget what I knew and genuinely listen to what they said. I teach my children and bonus children all the time that the key to life summed up in one word is “Others.” I had to, as a dad, put “others” before me. In doing so, I saw a brand new perspective on life. A totally different way of operating life. It was mind blowing…. for the better. Be transformed by the renewing of your gym membership. Wait… no… it’s the renewing of your mind.
This is not at all about the details of the Kavanaugh case but rather how we as Americans handled the news. This Kavanaugh situation is a direct combination of the first two paragraphs. We, as an American society, have somehow gotten to a place where we’ve stopped thinking for ourselves and allowed a group, club, team, (that could easily be translated “people that give me purpose”) to decide how we feel about something. We have completely flipped to “guilty until proven innocent.” All because we can’t think for ourselves. We’ve bought in to this “pack mentality” that says if someone smarter than me says it, then it must be true. So I believe it too.
WE MUST FIND A WAY TO GET BEYOND HOW LITTLE WE DIFFER IN ORDER TO SEE HOW MUCH WE ARE ALIKE.
There isn’t a single republican, Democrat, tea party, Whig party, independent or libertarian in the world that was going to make me decide on Kavanaugh’s innocence or guilt prior to hearing facts. I simply refused in the face of a missing solidarity that our country once had.
So maybe you’re reading this and thinking, maybe I’ve been unwilling to hear another point of view and be willing to accept it as an intelligent idea and genuinely try to see things from their perspective. Well there’s hope. But it will require you to get beyond yourself and serve others. To make every attempt to look through their eyes. Then, and only then, will we stop spewing hate rhetoric about a man, or a woman and their families without hearing FACTS. Think for yourself. Don’t be a puppet for any political party. It’s not worth it. It tears families apart and ruins lifelong friendships. It’s completely up to you to think….or not to think.