Keeping friendships despite political disagreements
It’s not easy keeping friendships despite political disagreements. For example, in our current federal scenario, there are people who love Trump and people who don’t. Within our nation and even within our own families, there is political divisiveness. How do we cope while retaining relations with those we love? The short and pithy answer is that love trumps Trump.
Media skews reality
Online social media and news media, by their very nature, distort our perception of reality. They fuel our fears and make us feel our world is more polarized than it really is. They bring our attention to a very limited selection of stories, whether real or fake, allowing us to dwell on them for an unlimited amount of time. We need to keep this in mind when choosing to imbibe and, at the very least, select balanced representations for information. This gives us the edge on keeping friendships despite political disagreements.
The weird world of the human brain
Our brains are designed to categorize. We make associations between concepts, and then our brains file them away into what we already know. That’s how we learn. But that can cause problems. There can be a danger of stereotyping and profiling, assuming we know someone when we really don’t. Our brains like to put labels on people to make us feel more secure: White. Black. Republican. Democrat. Gay. Environmentalist. Christian. Hindu. Jew. Muslim. Hispanic. None of these labels can fully describe the complexity of any one person. When we are looking at the total person — body, mind, and soul — we are more likely to love our friends for who they really are and not get upset if they don’t agree with our political viewpoints.
Sworn to a higher love
We are all human. If aliens from another planet were attacking our Earth, we would all band quickly together. There would be an incredible sense of unity as Earthlings. But our solidarity only seems to go as far as the scope of our current battle. Now the battle is between the Republicans and Democrats. During the Civil War, it was between the North and South. In both, there were disagreements within families. Family members don’t always share the same political views or the same geographical allegiance. It’s a shame when family members or friends become estranged because they don’t agree on politics. But perhaps our hearts will swear allegiance to a higher power: love.
If we take a moment and reflect on how we got here with our beliefs, our customs, our lifestyles, our preferences, and our habits and know that we could have had very different human lives on the other side of the world with different upbringings but the very same soul we have now, it’s a little bit mind blowing. It might make us realize that the human experience is not more important than the soul experience. We should make more effort to remember the soul connection when it comes to differences. When we focus on the soul, we have a better chance of overlooking political and lifestyle differences. Then we can enjoy our heart-to-heart connections while keeping friendships despite political disagreements.
Worthy endeavor
Two years ago, I awoke in the middle of the night aware that the room seemed to be filled with a massive radiating energy. I felt like I could be lifted out of bed from the sheer power surge. It was so strong that I was momentarily immobilized as if in a giant laser beam of love. I put my hand over my heart because the beam seemed to be centered there while engulfing the entire room. I was completely in awe but a little afraid that I might have a heart attack from the intensity. I knew without a doubt I was having a spiritual experience like I had never had before. It was as if a cosmic veil had been temporarily lifted and I could briefly glimpse God’s magnitude. But it was too big for me. If I didn’t dissipate some of it, I felt I might explode. I turned to my husband sleeping next to me and wrapped my arm around him and stroked his head. This was a profound transpersonal experience and I needed to share it. I remember thinking that no matter what my husband did from this day forward, I could never be annoyed at him again. It was as if this massive energy swallowed up every human flaw as soon as it was encountered. I became acutely aware that we are actors on an earthly stage and this huge benevolent presence had complete and unconditional love for all of us — all of us. It was a deeply comforting awareness.
The ultimate message is that God loves us all no matter what our affiliation, so shouldn’t we love each other despite our differences? Keeping friendships despite political disagreements is a worthy endeavor.
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