Five Minute Friday: Disagree

We’ve forgotten how to disagree.

Everywhere you look, you witness arguing and hatred and anger. It’s not enough to disagree with someone-many want to destroy anyone they disagree with. It started with social media. Now, people are comfortable fighting on social media and it’s moved into real life, face-to-face battles. Gone are the days of friendly debates or even civil debates. Now it’s all out war against anyone who disagrees with you on any issue, no matter how small or insignificant.

We will always have disagreements. There are more than 7 billion unique people in the world, each with their own background, their own opinions, and their own ways of seeing the world. We are all different, and we will never agree on everything. Disagreements are inevitable.

We can disagree and still be kind. We can disagree and still show respect. We can even disagree and still be friends. We can disagree on every single issue and still remain friends. I grew in the 1980’s, in the days of President Ronald Reagan. I remember how President and Reagan and Tip O’Neal fought. They were bitter rivals by day, disagreeing over almost every issue. Yet after work, they set aside their differences and remained friends. The world today needs more people like them.

One of my favorite quotes is “Be known for your kindness and grace.” We need more kindness and grace in the world, especially when we disagree.

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