Slices of Life Things we can agree on - part 1

Slices of Life

Things we can agree on - part 1

By Jill Pertler

I’m not sure how everything became so political. Maybe it’s my age. Maybe it’s always been this way and I never noticed before.

Maybe the world is changing. Maybe we really are that divided.

I don’t think so. I’m not convinced.

If we assess this world - our lives - as a whole, I think politics takes up a rather small slice. The rest - it’s just gravy. Good gravy. Tasty gravy. And guess what? I set out to write a column about this gravy. To focus on all the things we can agree on (versus disagree on.)

But wouldn’t you know it – one column grew into two. We agree on more than I originally thought. And we probably (no, we do) agree on even more than these words and topics I’m touching on.

We are more alike than we think - or like to admit. And that, my friends, is very good news.

We can agree. We do agree. Imagine that! And I will prepose to purport we have more things common than we do differences.

Let’s start with the obvious: pets. We love our pets. Some of us can’t imagine life without them, but what type of pet?

We can agree to love dogs or cats or maybe even both. They bring joy to our lives. They love without question - well, at least the dogs do. A cats love is pretty conditional, but we can agree to love them anyway.

We can agree that the minority among us might love hamsters or turtles or even goldfish, but we can still sit at dinner and have a nice conversation with them anyway, because learning about hamsters (or turtles or goldfish) might just be an okay thing, and even if it isn’t, knowledge about another person’s perspective can be enlightening.

We can agree to love gardening or sculpture or woodworking - or making something creative with our hands. Even those who don’t enjoy the making often enjoy the end product because creativity is an inherent joy of life.

We can agree to love ice cream. We may not agree on our favorite flavor, but we don’t have to let that get in the way of the fun of things. Whether you are a vanilla, chocolate, bubble gum or praline pecan kind of person, ice cream is a universal connector. It brings people together. (Unless you are lactose intolerant, but even then you can enjoy a frozen coconut milk concoction.)

We can agree to love nature. The smell of lilac bushes in the spring. The bronzing of the leaves in the fall. A rainbow after a summer’s rain. Watching the sunset on a beach. The crunch of your boots after a fresh snowfall. You may not enjoy the cold of winter as much as your second cousin, who darts through the nearby woods in his snowshoes, but you can allow him his folly without judgement from the comfort of your backyard hot tub, while snuggly and smugly thinking, “To each their own.”

And therein lies my point: to each their own. We can agree on many things, but we don’t have to agree on them all. Disagreeing doesn’t make another person evil or crazy or even less worthy of a seat at the next family birthday party. We are created to be different and unique; that is a huge part of the beauty and intrigue of it all.

Somehow in this frenzied 24/7 newsfeed world we seem to have forgotten that fact. That makes me sad. I believe we are here to build bridges, not tear them down. I believe we are here to support one another, even when we disagree. This interconnectedness is the prize.

In some ways we’ve lost sight of that.

But we can get it back. I believe that to my core, no matter what flavor of ice cream you prefer.

(Meet you back here next week for part two of this series.)

(Jill Pertler is an award-winning syndicated columnist, published playwright, author and member of the National Society of Newspaper Columnists. Don’t miss a slice; follow the Slices of Life page on Facebook.)