What do You Stand For?

What do you stand for?

What do you want your life to mean? What represents your life and how you would like the world around you to be?

These days, we seem to be surrounded by so much polarity, and so much of people's energy goes into being against what other people want rather than being for what you want.

Ever since I was a little kid I always believed that people should be free to have their opinions and to live their lives the way they think their lives would be meaningful. I watched the adults around me and they would often bicker and argue about things, and all I wanted was for them to each be able to do things the way they want it to do them without it leading to arguments and fights.

I was maybe 8 or 10 years old at the time. It's over 50 years later and I still pretty much believe in that same thing.

The problem I increasingly see around me is not so much that people want to have the freedom to see things their way and live their way, but that they want to exclude all other ways.

What difference does it make to you whether somebody down the street wants something completely different from you as long as they're not interfering with you and you're not interfering with them?

How is your sense of self threatened by the fact that somebody else thinks differently from you? It's easy to point fingers and say that you feel threatened because you believe that those other people want to threaten the way you live.

Again, I question why we spend so much time and energy and effort and anger on what others are doing rather than what we are doing...

At the moment I'm watching the shit show unfold in Washington DC as the government is shut down and reaching some sort of accord that gets the government up and running again seems to be no closer than it ever was.

It saddens me that the vast majority of the rhetoric is going into Republicans pointing fingers at Democrats, and Democrats pointing fingers at Republicans rather than actually finding solutions.

Reminds me of 6-year olds that have been unruly and are pointing fingers: "it wasn't me! Johnny did it!"

What the hell is wrong with these people?

Maybe I'm missing some part of the puzzle... but it all feels terribly reactive, rather than responsive.

And I wish it would change...

Thanks for stopping by, and have a great rest of your week!

How about YOU? What do YOU stand for? Are you willing to accept other points of view if you're free to have yours? Leave a comment if you feel so inclined — share your experiences — be part of the conversation!

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Created at 2025.10.09 00:14 PDT
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