Again, this week, I found myself wondering how, as a society, we got here. You know, the belief that if you don’t agree with me, then we must be enemies. So many times, the dialog devolves into hate. It’s crazy.
We seem to have lost our ability to communicate. We talk AT each other. We don’t talk WITH each other. And we certainly don’t seem to be listening to one another.
I am reminded of a speaker I heard at an AMWAY convention. Yes, I was that guy. I bought it all. I was going to sell soap and get rich. 😊
Anyway, during that time, I was fortunate to get to hear Charlie “Tremendous” Jones. He was a guest speaker at one of AMWAY's conventions. Jones was incredible. His message really hit home. I bought all his tapes and listened to them over and over.
In one of his messages, he said that we all have a communication problem. There’s no relationship that doesn’t. He mentioned marriage; even there, there’s a communication problem. Communicating is tough.
How could it have been that way 20 years ago, when it seems so much worse now?
Is it because we aren’t talking? Are we not listening? Or have our ideologies become so vastly different? I don’t know. We can agree on everything and not say anything to one another. That doesn’t do any good. On the other hand, we may not share similar ideas, but we talk. Yet there is still a disconnect.
I don’t know the answer, but there must be one – out there somewhere.
Maybe it’s time we showed each other some grace and see if we can find something, one thing, that might connect us, and build from there. No, we’re not going to connect with everyone. And it’s not our job to make everybody happy. Let’s just make a few people happy.
And let’s be happy ourselves.
-John