30 days of Misfit: Day 10- Another Progressive Post!

8:06am

I tried this out on Day Four… and as they say, if at first you don’t succeed, try, try again. So I’m taking their advice, and here we are, with another Progressive Post!

Just in case you missed Day 4, You are most welcome to go back and read it here… But in the meantime I’ll catch you up. The idea just to let you in on the painful, I mean magical process of creating one of these here blogposts, as it happens. So instead of saving the draft, I just publish what I have, and (hopefully) come back, edit and add more as the day wears on.

It’s a magical mystery ride, to be sure. Where will we end up? I have no idea. Could be a ticket to Nowheresville. Or a journey of Great Discovery! Life is risky, my Misfit friend. Sometimes we just have to lean in to it.

So I’ll start today’s post with this question. Mind you, there’s no guarantee we’ll even get past it, but it’s one worth pondering in any case.

Are you ready? Here it is:

Is it even possible to discuss ideas without making it personal?

Is it even possible to discuss ideas without making it personal?

5:52pm

… and the thinking continues…

I’ve actually heard from a few of you (you know who you are, and I thank you for your thoughtful thoughts 😊). Basically, the consensus between them is yes, it is at least theoretically possible, with a little R-E-S-P-E-C-T…

Which brings us to our next question:

Just because it’s possible, how likely is it?

Possible is one thing. Likely is another.

9:11pm

The thing is, of course it’s possible to discuss ideas without resorting to personal attacks.

There’s an old saying about great minds, and… wait, pictures are always better, and I’ll just screw it up, so here you go:

See now, the meme has spoken. And obviously, it resonates, or else someone wouldn’t have gone to the trouble of meming it.

And yes, there’re all kinds of directions I suppose we could take that. Does it mean we should detach our humanity from our grandiose discourse, and click the “why yes I am in fact a robot” reCaptcha button of life? Nooooooo, you silly non-robot, that’s impossible. We are who we are, even if we identify as something other than human, because, science. In fact, I would maintain that our very humanity is the reason it might be a good idea to strive to respect each other enough to resist the urge to get all poisonal (that’s me saying “personal” with a silly accent… and also discovering a cool play on words at the same time) in our grandiose discussions. What a concept.

I guess the bottom line, in my little Misfit brain is, the higher our thoughts, the less likely we are to use them as weapons. Or should use them, anyway. We know this. Sure we do. But I think we tend to forget this. In fact, I think we have maybe collectively forgotten this. I hope we remember it again soon. We really need to remember. I think we can. If we really try. And ask for lot of help from God. Maybe, come to think of it, in reverse order.

And with that, I bid you goodnight… Day 11 will be here before we know it!