For those that need to hear this:
If someone has a different life experience than you, they aren’t automatically stupid. If someone doesn’t have the same information you have, that doesn’t make them an idiot. If someone prioritized understanding other things than you prioritized, that doesn’t mean they were irresponsible.
We all have a unique journey. Clearly we operate as if we’re “right” to think and act as we do or we would have thought and acted differently. It follows that someone else who did act and think differently appears “wrong” to us becuase if that was “better” in our minds, wouldn’t we have done that and thought that instead?
In times of great polarization, don’t shy away from smart people you don’t understand. On the contrary, lean in. Sharing understanding through relationship and communication of experiential knowledge and data transfer can lead to wisdom and growth not only about the world you exist in, but about yourself and those around you. Withhold judgement and certainly withhold guilting and shaming. We all have unique experiences and some might even say unique realities, custom crafted to support our consciousness evolution.
Engage in love to understand each other. Divided we fall. United we stand. It’s okay to disagree with someone and continue doing and being you, but understanding WHY you disagree and them understanding why they aren’t convinced to follow your path causes both of you, if you’re honest and sincere, to better understand what is and be less wrong.
Here’s an example to drive this home: bitcoin is now $64,000 each. I’ve created videos, blog posts, started meetups, given conference talks, been on panel discussions, shared my views in person one on one, and more to spread awareness about this for over 8 years. I don’t need to shame or guilt anyone who didn’t listen to me or had a different perspective. When I said to just put in a little money and to learn about it and so many decided to ignore it instead, I don’t have to feel bad about that. Those who sold becuase they didn’t understand what it is? That’s okay. I did what I could and the universe does the rest. Evolution takes place. Living awareness is unavoidable. Avoidance eventually leads to death.
That’s just one example of where I think I was “right” about something and those who disagreed with me were “wrong.” There are an uncountable number of things I’m wrong about. Things I am ignorant of. Things I don’t even know are important for me to understand. As I become more aware, I think those things will rise to my prioritized attention. That will often happen through relationship with others.
And so the wheel of life continues...
I hope you have some great conversations today with smart people you disagree with, and you all become more aware through the interaction.