Monday, October 05, 2009

From the middle of nowhere, straight from my burning heart

The pain of a new idea is one of the greatest pains in human nature...after all, your favorite notions may be wrong, your firmest beliefs ill-founded.

~Walter Bagehot


This quote struck me square in the forehead this past summer. How true. I have noticed it in my own life, observed it in others, and can sense the undercurrent of it running throughout society.

But honestly, we all base our opinions on what we know from how have lived: the people we know, how we grew up, what we have experienced, and the environment we are surrounded by - be it social, physical, or intellectual. Is it any wonder that, collectively, we have strayed so far from "ideal"? Nay, that there has never been an Ideal.

We are all so different - even in our sameness, i.e. "culture". No one will ever agree. I don't believe it is possible to be on the same page. We must all agree to disagree and simply respect human life for what it is: valuable. Everyone else is as special as I am. As you are.

So why is this so hard to reconcile? The world is too big.

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