"I Disagree...."

"I Disagree..."

Being a fully realized human requires learning how to say these two simple words.

Not "You're an idiot."

Not "That's stupid."

Not "How could you think that!?"

Not "No Christian could think that.",

or "No conservative could think that.",

or "No liberal could think that."

or "No real ___(intsert whatever you're trying to discredit within someone else's identity here) could possibly think that."

If you can't look your friends in the eyes and say "I disagree" and then move on in both conversation and also in your relationship...then you don't have real friendships.

If you can't say "I disagree" without causing cataclysmic conflict with your spouse...then you don't have a healthy marriage.

If you can't say "I disagree" on the internet without adding insults then you lack logical thinking and communication skills.

If you can't disagree with a post, a comment, a news report, a statement, an opinion, a position, or a perspective that differs from your own without dehumanizing, discrediting, demoralizing, or dissolving into a tyrannical tailspin...

Then you don't actually have any security in your own thoughts and worldview.

Dialogue, debate, discourse, and disagreement, are all vitally important parts of every functioning relationship and society. 

It is integral to our personhood and inherent in our design to differ from one another and the kaleidoscope of ways that we can collectively view and perceive the world around us is a gift to us...

A gift that we squander with our hubris and our insecurity, intersecting and overlapping and turning us into overgrown toddlers.

We've managed to be both insecure in our capacity for crafting our own thoughts and also arrogant enough to believe that we've nothing else to learn.

And that combination is dangerous.

It's most frightening force is the power to isolate us.

We need each other.

And we don't need each other in SPITE of disagreement and differing perspectives...

We need each other BECAUSE of them. 

The image of a world where we all agree should be disturbing and unthinkable...

Learn to disagree.

It's a beautiful thing.