" I have decided to stick with love. Hate is too great a burden to bear"
These days it feels the whole world is divided into two camps. Whatever the issue there is a right and wrong view point; an us or them stance; good or bad opinion. We are allowing ourselves to be placed into oppositional thinking and combative roles.
This kind of thinking leads me into anger and hate more often than into love. I find I live a much happier life when I am able to see a third option, I am more able to love when I try to cross the divide. I do not have to agree with you to understand your point of view, or to soften to the idea that even though it is different, it might not be wrong.
This is why hate is such a burden for me. I have to carry my armor everywhere, prove I am right, even when there is some evidence, I could be wrong. Admitting fallibility, and keeping an open mind takes work, but it is the gentle work of really listening. instead of trying to anticipate, counter and react.
Oppositional is not the attitude I want to send my kids out into the world with, it is not the way I want to live. We model for our children how to be in the world, even as they reject our earnest instruction, they see what we do and that make an impression. So do I want to keep them boxed into a black and white mind set or do I want them to see the richness of the world around them with variation and beauty? Do I want to tell them I am right, implying they are often wrong, or try to understand their viewpoint, even when I disagree?
Although my world view maybe full of rich experience, along with love and care for them, my “my way or the highway” impulses push them back into the black and white box. The same box, I struggled to leave behind.
