Day 132: Reasonable

I object!

I am tired!

I can’t handle crazy!

I have decided I have a real problem with about 90% of the population, the people who form an opinion without being truly informed and never waver. And I really don’t care which side of the argument they are on. I equally detest ridiculous people on either side of an argument who are unwilling to consider that someone may have information they don't have. 

I have spent enough time around people, listening to people, paying attention to the world to know that very little is cut and dried. Most issues and stories have two sides, most have two reasonable sides and the best answer or view is somewhere in the middle.

I am not saying I am not opinionated. I certainly am. But I try to be informed. I am also willing to learn, listen, take a different perspective. I just can’t abide by people who take a stance and refuse to listen to another’s ideas.

I hate the idea of abortion. I hate it! I can’t have children and hundreds of thousands of them are murdered by abortion each year. I think it is morally wrong. I think children are people from the moment of conception, that God knit them in the womb as surely as he knit me. However, I don’t know if making it illegal is the right thing to do. If I believe it is murder because my religious beliefs say an embryo is a life, what about someone who doesn’t believe a fetus is a separate life until able to be viable? I have a hard time imposing my religious beliefs on someone else. I would love to offer alternatives, heck! I would love to adopt another baby! I would GLADLY take a child rather than have it aborted. I just don’t assume somehow that I am smart enough to see all sides to a situation or to judge what someone else should or shouldn’t do based on my beliefs. There are plenty of people whose morals I would not want imposed upon me.

I have a hard time with people who just don’t try to look across the aisle or fence and try to see where the other person might be coming from. I think most fights are not because we disagree, but are because we don’t understand.

My husband and I have had more fights because the way we said something triggered an emotional response in the other that had nothing to do with the issue and we refused (one or both of us) to stop to try to see what the other person MEANT, not just what was said. I know that once we calm down enough to be able to talk to each other, most of the time it was a misunderstanding of what was intended that caused the fight. Even when we disagree, if we can stay calm and try to process what the other person is feeling, we can come to a compromise or at least agree to disagree. 

I am just DONE with unreasonable people. Life is complicated. I am a smart person, reasonably well educated and somewhat informed, but A LOT of people know things I don't. When someone confronts me about a viewpoint, I listen. I research where they are coming from. I may not change my mind. But I can respect that they have an equal right to their opinion as I do to mine. Why is that such a hard thing for people to grasp?!?!?