Which side are you on?

Opened right up to today's quote on community. "In genuine community there are no sides." - M. Scott Peck

I credit choosing sides to human passion. We are all passionate about different things. Sometimes that same passion (disguised as opinion) can blind us, causing us to have a hard time seeing why others might feel the way they do, creating sides. This causes us to say and think life-taking words about people in moments of frustration, like "How can they feel that way? Don't they see the proof in the numbers I presented? Didn't they hear what I just said?" 

Then, when their idea fails, we find the "I told you so." undertone projected behind everything that comes out of our mouths. But, if our idea fails, we tend to start our next sentence with "Wellllll" or "But I didn't know that they...", implying we CLEARLY didn't have the whole truth... 

Mmmm humble pie... tastes good...(and I would know the way the Gator football team has been playing lately!)

Sometimes when we come across this, specifically in community situations, not to be cliche, but we really have to ask ourselves what the other side is thinking. What is their objective? WHY are they thinking their way is best? Am I missing something? Is it really better? ::chomp chomp:: mmmm more humble pie. 

Let's look at elected officials. We're not always going to agree with the people elected to make decisions for our community, regardless of how we voted on Election Day. That doesn't mean we should spring out hate messages through every outlet possible and rip them apart. We're all human beings and all that is going to do is cause more hurt and pain. The saying "nobody likes a sore loser" is not just about sports. 

Next time you are involved in a situation like this, work or personal, try not to take a side, but instead get on the same page as the other party involved and form a new opinion, together. Educate yourself on their beliefs/passions. Slowly, the internal wall of hatred will start to fall. If you only worry about your own side and point of view, you'll miss a HUGE opportunity. A really important one. An opportunity to GROW as a person. You can still disagree, but the more you understand the opposition, the wall will continue to fall, brick by brick. 

There is a whole silver lining here that we have to keep reminding ourselves about. Everybody is just trying to do what they think is best. Sure, some have personal agendas, but that can't be your worry. Creating community requires a genuine heart and always starts with just one person, fulfilling a passion. 

Remember, as different as we all are, as opinionated as we all are, we will always have one thing in common. 

We're on the same side. 

Kelly