Because we're all a little brainwashed

Terry Tempest Williams writes in The Open Space of Democracy that she would die, and live her life, for free speech. I’ve decided I agree with her. How she defines free speech I’ll paraphrase as valuing every voice. Let’s be serious here—we all like hanging out with people who think just like us. Friends are important; community is important. But I think those with whom we vehemently disagree have just as much to teach us as those who think like us. This goes beyond “challenging our views” or making us a little uncomfortable with our cocky selves. Truly listening—truly valuing their voices—means we stop taking ourselves so seriously and recognize that maybe God didn’t hand us truth on a silver platter. In fact, maybe truth will be found when we not only listen to those with whom we disagree, but seek to be in community with them.

This can be freaky. We live in a reality that trains us to pit ourselves against others. We demonize our enemies; when we say we “love” them what we mean is we’re going to keep working on them until they agree with us. We go to great ends to close our eyes to the humanity that resides in those who stand in our way. We’ve all got one of those relationships where “we just don’t talk about politics.” We all find ourselves afraid, deep down, to talk to about because we don’t want to offend her, or because we’re afraid he won’t understand. Too often, our fears are justified. When deep pain is involved, sometimes even we don’t realize how much it will hurt when the other person shrugs off our pain because they’ve constructed walls around their own reality and won’t let us in. But if we make them monsters, we forget that they are just as oppressed by their oppressive acts as we are. Who's going to listen first? May God give us the grace, the strength, the endurance, to listen for as long as it takes.


Oh, and Happy Birthday to me. Now I can buy liquor everywhere in Canada, and my age is a prime number. I’ve been waiting for this since I was like, 17.