Taylor would often come home from work with stories of conversations he had with any given client that day. In the past two years it would usually center around the topic of J6 and the experience our family has had with the FBI, DOJ and everything surrounding that.
I think the conversations would go something like this.....septic system/work talk.....economy talk....Trump talk.....and can you believe what happened on January 6th?! We live in Washington state and there are a lot of people here that lean more to the left. So, often the conversations would go from, "well, I don't like Trump as a person....but he did have some good policies...things were better when he was in office...he was so obnoxious though...but, can you believe what happened on January 6th? At this point in the conversation they had talked for quit some time and from what I could tell, both parties had usually enjoyed the conversation. He would go on to tell them the experience that we have had and that he was one of "those people". It was fascinating to see how exceptions were made for him - well you aren't the "usual January 6er".
Taylor hardly ever shies away from conversation. He has a hat that says, "CAUTION: I HAVE NO FILTER", I told him he should wear it everywhere he goes, to give people a fair warning. Many times we have remarked on how people that meet him either love him or hate him...it's probably because of the filter thing :). When we first got married our conversations would really offend me. I remember taking the LONG drive from Boise to Rexburg so many times, and thinking "who did I marry". He argues the "for side" and he argues the "against side". We would be talking about something for hours, him arguing a specific side, and I would get so offended, because, how could you think that?! Just to find out at the end of the conversation, he didn't really agree with that way of looking at a thing, but those are the merits and why a person would see it that way. AAAHHHHH!!
This very thing I grew to love in Taylor. My paradigm was very much black and white before I met him. I actually didn't know anyone like that, that would look at a thing so in-depth, just to be able to see it from all sides. I needed him. I am so grateful for the things he has taught me and helped me in revealing some of my own insecurities and flaws in the way that I thought and even how I viewed others that thought differently than me.
There is a book called "The Righteous Mind", and it talks about some of the core values that humans have. Two specific ones I remember really thinking abut, especially with COVID, were the values of care and liberty. I observed during COVID, that if a person valued care over liberty they were much more receptive to mask mandates, lock downs and forced vaccinations. On the other hand, those that valued liberty above care, often rejected those restrictions. Of course there is a scale with all of this, but it is interesting to consider. When looking at both these values, I think we could all agree that they are good and noble. I think that in general people are good, but if we look at them as "the others", we miss that good.
There's an article that was written in the NY Times about the subject, if anyone is interested: https://www.nytimes.com/2012/03/25/books/review/the-righteous-mind-by-jonathan-haidt.html
It's so interesting to look at how we humans treat one another, and how we see each other. We look at history and think, how could the German's do that to the Jews or family members turn against family members in the Cultural Revolution? The examples could go on and on. And, the interesting thing is, we think that we are above all of that (or maybe we did before COVID). The spirit of treating a brother or sister (biological or neighbor) as an object is the spirit that builds to give justification in people's minds to injure others, injury in its various forms. I recently taught a Leadership Class to high school homeschool students where we read a book called, "The Anatomy of Peace". In it, it talked about the dangers of viewing other human beings as object or "those other people". That was another fascinating read.
Some questions I ask myself:
What would it look like if I didn't have to "speak my mind" every time I was challenged?
What would it look like if I could listen to another person boldly stating something that was against what I believed in, and not feel threatened by that or feel like I needed to "fix"them?
I think sometimes the fear is that by not saying something, you didn't stand up for something you feel is "righteous" ...or maybe your silence will be looked upon as agreement.
What is the best way?
Things to think about...
*Usually these conversation I have with Taylor- but he's not here....so I'll get them out this way, I guess...
No comments:
Post a Comment