“(Jesus) walked along a little farther and saw James, the son of Zebedee, and his brother John.  They too were in a boat mending their nets.  Then he called them.  So they left their father…”

Everybody’s right and everybody else is wrong depending on the hotly debated position you hold dearly at the expense of those you hold dearly.   What better way to consider this then through a song.

I blame cable’s acrimonious news which I can barely watch anymore.  Three people talking at once is not a good way to become informed for someone in his 60’s.  It’s the old adage does television mimic us or vise versa.  I think it’s the latter.  Television legitimates behavior by showing us in HD that’s it’s okay to use the “f” word as either a noun, adjective or verb (all done in one sentence, by the way) to the revolutionary view of a married couple in bed together (aka Bob Newhart).

You told me I was the neatest thing
You even asked me to wear your ring
You ran around with every girl in town
You didn’t even care if it got me down

But that’s beside the point, the origin of this division.  We’ve all had strong views since time’s beginning and that’s a good thing.  What scares me now is that we all seem to be comfortable in our divided sides and smug in our little positions about big issues.  We label each other after one sentence and then freeze that label in place for all further conversations.  “Oh, she’s on that side,” we quickly ascertain in three seconds.

Got along without you before I met you
Gonna get along without you now
Gonna find somebody who is twice as cute
‘Cause you didn’t want me anyhow

Politics, church, personal behavior – the category doesn’t matter, it’s only our behavior toward another person that matters.  I’ll be the first to admit I implement the preceding paragraph quickly and easily which is why it was so easy to write.  I walk away from a dividing topic with a friend surprised at my abruptness and cavalier feeling while also feeling a slight nausea inside like a piece of pizza that haunts you two hours later.  I’m happy for that delayed feeling because that’s the hope in both country and church.  I haven’t experienced an argument being settled in its heat.  We are then caught and need to protect our views and thoughts even when an opposing view slowly makes sense and causes us to nuance our view.  (I believe that’s called “communication.”)

You told everybody that we were friends
But this is where our friendship ends
‘Cause all of a sudden you even changed your tune
You haven’t been around since way last June

So long my honey, goodbye my dear
Gonna get along without you now

The sandbox of life is only so big and we all need to fit in it and play in it well.  Throwing sand at each other is fun when you’re ten but when the sand becomes divisive and absolute words are thrown about then we all need a bit of nausea from time to time.

I still have strong views about our country and church but believe that my nausea is soften by also believing that I’m a little right and I’m a little bit wrong.