The Family Came To Town
My brother and his wife pulled in early this morning. (Let's define the term: "early," for someone who works late at night, here means "anything before 9:45 a.m.) They are travelers, which I am not, and have been in something like 40 of the contiguous states, which I will never be.
That's only one thing we (bro' and I) don't have in common. Matter of fact, he says the only thing we have in common is our parents. That well may be true, with one exception: We both respect each other's likes and dislikes. Nobody ever said there's only one way to look at things (except for churches and certain militant governments) and we're into celebrating diversity.
I've seen pretty bad fights start over a difference of opinion in which, when you get down to it, the object being fought over is quite secondary to the egos of the people doing the fighting. They don't respect each other's right to hold a different thought, to see things a different way.
How dull a world this would be if everyone had to dress the same way, believe the same things, listen to the same music and read the same newspaper. You seldom (if ever) find respect in those situations, which do exist. You find people at the top disrespecting those beneath them.
Respect does not equal agreement; you do not give up your principles, your likes and dislikes, when you respect someone. You just acknowledge that it is within the universe of possibilities that you do not have all the answers, that your tastes might not be the standard against which all others are measured.
You know the old song: "I say 'tomayto' and you say 'tomahto.'" We have updated it to: "I say 'potato' and you say 'pomme de terre.'" He's from outside Quebec City; we don't even have a language in common!
Bon nuit, mes amis! Time for bed.
That's only one thing we (bro' and I) don't have in common. Matter of fact, he says the only thing we have in common is our parents. That well may be true, with one exception: We both respect each other's likes and dislikes. Nobody ever said there's only one way to look at things (except for churches and certain militant governments) and we're into celebrating diversity.
I've seen pretty bad fights start over a difference of opinion in which, when you get down to it, the object being fought over is quite secondary to the egos of the people doing the fighting. They don't respect each other's right to hold a different thought, to see things a different way.
How dull a world this would be if everyone had to dress the same way, believe the same things, listen to the same music and read the same newspaper. You seldom (if ever) find respect in those situations, which do exist. You find people at the top disrespecting those beneath them.
Respect does not equal agreement; you do not give up your principles, your likes and dislikes, when you respect someone. You just acknowledge that it is within the universe of possibilities that you do not have all the answers, that your tastes might not be the standard against which all others are measured.
You know the old song: "I say 'tomayto' and you say 'tomahto.'" We have updated it to: "I say 'potato' and you say 'pomme de terre.'" He's from outside Quebec City; we don't even have a language in common!
Bon nuit, mes amis! Time for bed.
posted by Tom Carten at 1:40 AM
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