Solonor's Inkwell

Today’s lesson was an easy one to digest, even though it’s not always the easiest to live with for some folks. And that was the point. How do we live with “those people”?

I see it all the time, especially in the blog world, where you can hide behind words on a computer screen. Things you’d never say to someone in person become quite easy from the safety of your keyboard.

I’m not talking about accidentally insulting someone because you’re trying too hard or because you didn’t quite understand what the other person was saying. I do that all the time (probably with this very post). No, I’m talking about out-and-out rudeness or the dismissal of another person’s point-of-view just because they’re one of “those people”.

You know who I’m talking about, right?

That right-wing lunatic, Michele, right? Right? Man, there’s some crazy conservative nutjob there. Bloggers for Bush?? Ewww!

Or maybe it’s those liberal whackos Scott and Brian. Those guys need to go live with Saddam for a while, right? I mean, they must think alike. America haters.

Oh, wait, I know. It’s those freaky lesbians. How can we listen to them? What possible worth is anything someone like MJ or Jill says?

Good grief, Elizabeth is a Catholic! But that’s better than Les. He’s a fricking atheist!! How can we even pretend he’s got something worthwhile to hear?

Right. Those people. My friends. Those and dozens more who make up a part of my offline and online world. I may agree with everything they say. I may disagree with half of what comes out of their mouths. But I love and respect them all, and I feel blessed that they pretend to do the same for me.

The body does not consist of one member but of many. If the foot would say, “Because I am not a hand, I do not belong to the body,” that would not make it any less a part of the body. And if the ear would say, “Because I am not an eye, I do not belong to the body,” that would not make it any less a part of the body. If the whole body were an eye, where would the hearing be? If the whole body were hearing, where would the sense of smell be? But as it is, God arranged the members in the body, each one of them, as he chose. If all were a single member, where would the body be? As it is, there are many members, yet one body. The eye cannot say to the hand, “I have no need of you,” nor again the head to the feet, “I have no need of you.” If one member suffers, all suffer together with it; if one member is honored, all rejoice together with it. – 1 Corinthians 12

Remind me to reprint my pastor’s sermon. He said it way better. I butchered it with this. Sorry. But the world needs idiots like me, too, so nyah!