Friday, June 7, 2013

Good Sleeper

We were together this past weekend, all seven sibs and two parents, spouses and some children.  Precious time, and our attendance confirmed that we understood that.

Of course some of us ate too much...and drank too much...and probably said a few things we might not have said under other circumstances.

But that is just more of a compliment than anything.  We complement.  There's safety here.

So when I was asked, later in the evening after what some may say was too many margs, if I would sleep with Marco Rubio, I resounded an immediate and loud "No!"  I wasn't thinking about my happy marriage, about the fact that Mr. Rubio, too, is married, and I didn't even recognize that the hypothetical question posed to me also implied that I didn't know the US Senator very well.

My response?  "I don't sleep with conservatives."

It was my attempt at stand up, of course.  But later it got me thinking about my own biases, and the degrees of sensitivity of the two political parties in regards to the suffering of others.  How a shared world view can support a connection, and how humans naturally and unconsciously shun pain and gravitate toward pleasure.  How life is sweeter when problems and conflict can be avoided, and the comfortable feeling when your political group provides belonging, and you feel understood.  How diversity of opinion is nevertheless important - paramount, really - as is respect and tolerance.

Back at the party, we started talking politics and darts were shot at the current administration about Benghazi, and the subsequent handling of it.  I so-o considered lobbing back about WOMD and the lies and the decision to go to war and the ensuing intelligence cover ups, and also the magnitude of that decision comparatively, the thousands (100,000?) of casualties, but I saw an ugly path - a small fire only needs a bit of wind to spread.  You've got to know when to turn it off.

Later, I was thinking about scandalous behavior and the lessons of masking the truth and how it is done on both sides of the political fence and how transparency really does breed trust and credibility.  Masking and spinning create damage that sometimes is never fixed, especially when an underlying truth is intentionally covered . . . and there's a whole lot of hypocrisy that follows.  I also remembered Barb, quietly contributing with this line, taken almost entirely now out of context:  "You see what you recognize."  Such wisdom.

So, here tonight as I value my marriage and treasure my family, I can say with renewed conviction and complete sobriety, with respect for others' perspectives, I don't sleep with conservatives.
Can you see both perspectives
in this picture?  Take your time!

1 comment:

  1. Well said. I also really like "you see what you recognize".

    ReplyDelete