I'm not there yet but I'm getting there. I started years ago with a few members of my own family and a handful of personal friends whose friendship I valued (and in many cases still do).
Well actually it started in my teens, when I experienced for the first time the phenomenon of people "not speaking" any more when they learned I was a budding social activist. But that was fairly easy. It happened at a time in my life when I needed to know which people had enough character to disagree without being disagreeable. I had the "for me or against me" attitude of youth -- the same one, incidentally, that remains embedded in the thinking of most of my conservative friends.
But now, as I approach old age, I'm weaning off altogether. My so-called "activism" has shrunk to a few Facebook and Twitter gestures, with an occasional blog post tossed in. Seven years as a senior care-giver has shown me that a significant subset of the population must simply pass on without changing. Hopefully their bigotry and inflexible thinking will diminish with their numbers. As I said, I'm getting there. My goal is to remain civil as long as possible, and remain disciplined enough to needle people as much as I can get away with without being insulting or offensive. And little by little I'm getting tired of even that. It's no longer fun. I sense I'm being dismissed as just an old guy with crazy ideas, And it bothers me to feel simply tolerated.
I'm not there yet but I'm getting there.
ReplyDeleteI started years ago with a few members of my own family and a handful of personal friends whose friendship I valued (and in many cases still do).
Well actually it started in my teens, when I experienced for the first time the phenomenon of people "not speaking" any more when they learned I was a budding social activist. But that was fairly easy. It happened at a time in my life when I needed to know which people had enough character to disagree without being disagreeable. I had the "for me or against me" attitude of youth -- the same one, incidentally, that remains embedded in the thinking of most of my conservative friends.
But now, as I approach old age, I'm weaning off altogether. My so-called "activism" has shrunk to a few Facebook and Twitter gestures, with an occasional blog post tossed in. Seven years as a senior care-giver has shown me that a significant subset of the population must simply pass on without changing. Hopefully their bigotry and inflexible thinking will diminish with their numbers. As I said, I'm getting there. My goal is to remain civil as long as possible, and remain disciplined enough to needle people as much as I can get away with without being insulting or offensive. And little by little I'm getting tired of even that. It's no longer fun. I sense I'm being dismissed as just an old guy with crazy ideas, And it bothers me to feel simply tolerated.