I promise this isn’t just another one of those rants and raves from the far right or the far left. Given the subject matter, how can I avoid that? Because I’m not talking about the cause of it, I’m talking about the result of it.
If we take a step back and look at what this partisan divide, Pro-Trump vs Anti-Trump period in our history has done, not just to the country, but to each of us, it’s not only amazing, but devastatingly sad. I’ve lost friends as I’ve seen them disappear over the edge of one or the other side. Sadly, maybe you have too. Once there, there is no compromise or learning or admonition of wrong ideas or conclusions, whether correct or not. You’re either with us or you’re the enemy. Ugh… At that point, a conversation simply isn’t possible because they think, no check that, they knowthat they are right, and no display of facts matter or can persuade them! I’ll say that again, NO DISPLAY OF FACTS MATTER! I’m not naïve enough to believe that deep divisions weren’t prevalent in our country before all of this. But, I never believed that I would see the day when one side, or the other would simply not believe in the facts. My whole life, and yours, too, has been brought up around facts. From our earliest learning, facts have been there taking us from point to point in our lives. 2+2 = 4. Right? So how is it that almost half of us now believe 2+2=37 because that’s what I want it to be!?!
The fantasy land of “It is so, because I want it to be so” is taking over an alarming percentage of folks in the land of the Red, White and Blue. The difference between “They didn’t win the election because I don’t want them to win” or “He is bad because I don’t like him,” is a distance that is so great, i wouldn’t begin to know how to measure it.
In one way or another we have all been touched by this divide. We see it in our business and the businesses we visit. We see it with our friends and their thoughts and ideas. We see it within our own families be-they close or extended. Sadly, we see it so much… that in some cases we don’t even see it anymore. By not seeing it and not seeing them, we ignore that part of life and just move on. That is a very bad thing.
As I was writing this, I just wrote that this must change, but erased it because I’m not sure if it can! I’m not sure that it will! If we canturn it around, it must be a “ground up” change. Any change must start with us, you and me. That’s the only answer.
The question of will it change, well that’s much more concerning. The trouble with living within a fantasy is that it gets very comfortable, very quickly. So comfortable, that it becomes more and more and more difficult to one day step back into reality. Also, once you’re living within this fantasy world, the real world continues on with all of its problems and challenges. Even more, the real world continues on with all of its wonder, happiness and enrichment waiting for them. They are missing out on that too and we are missing out on experiencing it with them.
Author and life coach Tony Robbins (Who I don’t often quote.) said: “Change happens when the pain of staying the same is greater than the pain of change.” That is the only way this divide gets broken up and things begin to turn around. That also can only happen one by one. That then turns into 10 by 10’s, 100 by 100’s and so on. Do the math…
1×1+10 x10+100×100+1000×1000+1000000×1000000…
Sorry, I’m not only inserting math into this but there I go with those pesky facts again! (My bad)
Look, our country has encountered both challenge and change throughout its entire history. I’m afraid that what we’re all enveloped in now, is among the worst this grand land has ever seen. (And that is saying a lot.) I’m afraid that unless we all begin to step up and grasp reality for what it is—whether we like it or not—the United States of America we grew up in, took pride in, may have fought for, believed in and have worked to become the cogs that move the country forward to better things and a better place to live, will see it become only be a memory, a ghost of a once great promise that is disappearing into the fog like Brigadoon.
I can’t let that happen without doing my best to prevent it. I’m banking on the fact that you can’t either.
Peace
…Gregg