So many thoughts, so very little coherent writing
I've now started this post, written quite a bit, and then deleted the whole thing a couple of times. I have so many thoughts racing through my head, that I know to write them out would be clarifying and helpful, but sometimes they all need to simmer a bit more. This is usually the case when I do the write-delete-write-delete-thing.
The other part of the problem is that all of those roiling thoughts are so incredibly disparate. There was the online argument I had about gaps in a child's education. I might have snapped just a little bit when I was then told that children with gaps will never succeed in college. Okay, I think I snapped more than a little bit. So there's the whole educational gaps idea combined with who is your audience when you are commenting on something like that.
Then there was the revelation I had this morning that perhaps there is a significant connection between gas lighting in conservative evangelical marriages and accepting the gas lighting that is coming from the POTUS. I'm not ready to write a whole blog post about it yet, but just trying to connect the dots in order to explain why people who say they follow Jesus are willing to blindly follow a man who is, in word and action, so very much opposite of how Jesus calls us to live.
In that same vein, have you noticed the new tip-toeing we all do around each other these days as we try to figure out where someone stands on the issue of the POTUS and protests and people of color? One person will throw out some sort of comment to see what the reaction of the other person is. This fishing can be blatant and quick or go on for a bit, but the end result is either a sigh of relief that they see things as you do, or a clamming up realizing that middle ground is going to be hard to reach. I've been on both ends of this little conversational dance. It's as though none of us really know the people we thought we knew.
Finally, I wonder about the general public's critical thinking skills, or lack thereof, actually. Why are so many people willing to swallow things hook, line, and sinker? How difficult it is to think, "Huh. That sounds a little over the top. Maybe I should do a little research." Instead, it seems the more lurid and frightening the story, the more likely people are to buy it. Are they just that bored that they need to create drama and excitement in their lives?
Pretty much, I could probably sum all this up in one sentence. I just don't get people much of the time.
The other part of the problem is that all of those roiling thoughts are so incredibly disparate. There was the online argument I had about gaps in a child's education. I might have snapped just a little bit when I was then told that children with gaps will never succeed in college. Okay, I think I snapped more than a little bit. So there's the whole educational gaps idea combined with who is your audience when you are commenting on something like that.
Then there was the revelation I had this morning that perhaps there is a significant connection between gas lighting in conservative evangelical marriages and accepting the gas lighting that is coming from the POTUS. I'm not ready to write a whole blog post about it yet, but just trying to connect the dots in order to explain why people who say they follow Jesus are willing to blindly follow a man who is, in word and action, so very much opposite of how Jesus calls us to live.
In that same vein, have you noticed the new tip-toeing we all do around each other these days as we try to figure out where someone stands on the issue of the POTUS and protests and people of color? One person will throw out some sort of comment to see what the reaction of the other person is. This fishing can be blatant and quick or go on for a bit, but the end result is either a sigh of relief that they see things as you do, or a clamming up realizing that middle ground is going to be hard to reach. I've been on both ends of this little conversational dance. It's as though none of us really know the people we thought we knew.
Finally, I wonder about the general public's critical thinking skills, or lack thereof, actually. Why are so many people willing to swallow things hook, line, and sinker? How difficult it is to think, "Huh. That sounds a little over the top. Maybe I should do a little research." Instead, it seems the more lurid and frightening the story, the more likely people are to buy it. Are they just that bored that they need to create drama and excitement in their lives?
Pretty much, I could probably sum all this up in one sentence. I just don't get people much of the time.
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