Amidst the constant fighting, clashing, and disagreeing we have been seeing throughout the course of this entire election, I think we can all at least agree on one thing: this election is a mess. And we all want it to stop.
I, among many others, have a countdown. 25 days until the election is over. 25 more days of fighting, mudslinging, hate speech, and all that garbage.
But is it really going to be over in 25 days?
Politics is a wonderful topic. It helps people share their values, understand different points of view, settle differences, and learn to compromise. But politics can also get very ugly very quickly, as we have seen since this election began. In my opinion, politics becomes the most ugly when opinions become more important than people. And the sad thing is, that has been happening a lot this election. And, call me pessimistic, I don't know if that's going to stop after the election.
I'm not going to claim that I've never gotten to that point. There have been times that I have gotten so passionate that in a fit of rage I've written some things on social media that I now regret. I came across an opinion, and all of a sudden, I had to be right. Not only did I have to be right, everyone else had to know I was right. And everyone else had to agree with me and see how incredibly "stupid" this claim I had found was. So I tore it apart. At least I tore the opinion apart and not the person who wrote it. But, at the same time, did I hurt that person too? And how many people did I hurt who shared that opinion?
When I got called out on it by a trusted friend I realized that not only do people see and read my comments, but it is possible that they may take what I write very personally, and if I am impolite, rude, or disrespectful, I could really hurt someone.
This week I found myself on the receiving end. Someone who had been there for me during a very difficult time in my life, whose friendship meant everything in the world to me, very suddenly severed our friendship when she found out I was voting for Hillary Clinton, without even asking a single question to help her understand where I was coming from.
Needless to say, it was very, *very* painful.
I'm not sharing this to set myself up as some kind of martyr. Rather, I share it to support the point I'm making about how easy it is to fall into the flawed thinking pattern that our opinions, or our being right, is more important than people. And, when we do fall into that kind of thinking pattern, we can really hurt someone. Is it really worth it? Is being right at the expense of the feelings or even well-being of others really worth it? Is it more important than relationships? Is it more important than trying to understand and connect with others? Is it worth tearing relationships apart?
I'm hoping that when this election ends, or even sooner if possible, that we can all be able to discuss differences in opinion with kindness, respect, and civility. I'm hoping that everyone can remain friends and respect each other's opinions, even if they sit on opposite sides of the political spectrum. That everyone can disagree without being disagreeable.
Because politics is not worth it.
