Ah, election season.  The time when the gloves come off and people who I adore and who appear to adore me for 3 years and 9 months at a time all of a sudden lose all filters and start to question both my sanity and my intelligence.  Good times.

I am liberal. So very liberal. There, I said it.

And lots of you are, too. Woot!

But some aren’t.  And that is totally cool with me. People believe different things. If we all believed the same thing life would be boring, and creepy.

I don’t understand why you believe it. It makes very little sense to me.  But you do and I get that I am not going to change your mind.  And I’d like to stay friends because I love almost everything else about you.

And you aren’t doing anything to support your cause when you try to point out the error of my ways.

When you say, “DO YOU SERIOUSLY BELIEVE THAT?” as if I was insane, it hurts my feelings.

When you say, “You only believe that because XXXX” where XXXX = something that implies that I am uninformed or soft in the head or under the sway of evil forces, it hurts my feelings.

It doesn’t make me want to believe something different.  It just makes me sad.

I believe what I do because I have been wandering about the world for 45 years. Working hard, participating, being responsible.

I believe what I do because of:

• Where I have been
• What I have seen
• What I have read
• What I have heard
• What I have experienced
• What I worry about
• What I don’t want to have to worry about
• What I wish I didn’t have to worry about
• What I would want to happen if I was in a tight spot
• What I want for my kids
• What I want for my parents, and my grandparents, and my neighbors, and my friends
• What I believe about the value of other people, of happiness, of second chances, of love, of hope

I am not soft in the head. I have not been brainwashed to believe anything. I am not uninformed. What I believe makes total sense to me in my freakishly logical brain.

Just like what you believe makes total sense to you.

So maybe, if someone says something you don’t agree with, you could just nod and say, “I understand where you are coming from, but I just don’t agree.”

And not question the sanity, or intelligence of the belief.

Can we try that?

You know I love to quote a song lyric, so I will leave you with this one  (and please don’t tell me how much John Mayer sucks and I am an idiot for quoting him – just read it.)

Belief – by John Mayer

Is there anyone who
Ever remembers changing there mind from
The paint on a sign?
Is there anyone who really recalls
Ever breaking rank at all
For something someone yelled real loud one time

Everyone believes
In how they think it ought to be
Everyone believes
And they’re not going easily

Belief is a beautiful armor
But makes for the heaviest sword
Like punching under water
You never can hit who you’re trying for

Some need the exhibition
And some have to know they tried
It’s the chemical weapon
For the war that’s raging on inside

Everyone believes
From emptiness to everything
Everyone believes
And no ones going quietly

We’re never gonna win the world
We’re never gonna stop the war
We’re never gonna beat this
If belief is what we’re fighting for