We have an expectation that everyone understand, well, just about everything we want to talk about. On top of this is our absurd expectation that whenever someone hears ‘our side’ they’ll change their mind…surely…because after all we’re right.

Here is what is closer to the truth – what you and I know is a tiny sliver of what is available to be known. It’s why this little phrase makes sense: The more you know, the less you know. Another truth is this – I’m not always right and neither are you. Here’s the phrase that captures it: There’s my side, your side and somewhere in-between is the truth.

Forming an opinion or gathering knowledge exclusively from sound bites, headlines and talking heads is like trying to learn how to swim without getting into the water. You can understand a little bit by standing at the edge of the pool, but from there you just can’t know what it’s really about. You’ve got to jump into the water. It follows that if you really want to know more about something, anything, you’ve got to dive a little deeper.

I was talking to my sister, Lynn, about this exact thing. She heard or read something about Christopher Columbus and the reason he set sail across the Atlantic Ocean. It didn’t sound quite right to her. She is now reading a history of the United States. She wants to find out for herself.

If you live as if you already know everything you will never learn anything new. If you only scan the headlines, read the memes and listen to opinions you already agree with…well, you will never expand your personal horizon.

None of us have the time to learn everything there is to know. Life is complex and rich and amazingly dynamic. We’re all changing and evolving, struggling and succeeding, aware and unaware, taking steps forward and taking steps backward, in pain and free from pain.

I don’t know everything, I’m not always right and my opinion is just the way I happen to see it. It’s the same for you. How about we resolve to simply be more kind, and more humble?

Paula