Can’t We All Get Along?
I must admit I almost always chuckle at this question and usually say, “Are you kidding? Of course not.” I often add to my answer, “As long as there are two people involved, the answer is ‘no.’”
My reason for that is that I interact with opinionated persons who make this nearly impossible. But when I take time to contemplate my answer, I say, “Well, maybe.” When it boils down to it, we should be able to figure out a solution, especially if we are not major world enemies. And even then, we ought to make better strides emotionally and politically.
I feed birds at my house and have five types of feeders for hummingbirds, songbirds, wild birds, cardinals, and aggressive birds.
Recently, I noticed that under two of the bird feeders were a squirrel, rabbit, two chipmunks, a turkey, and two doves—all eating from the overflow of food and dropped bird seeds. I normally don’t think of these animals hanging out together, but they were today!
I took pictures and videos and said to myself, “Maybe there is hope for people in the world, too.” What makes the difference?
Consider these ideas:
Maybe we need to forget that everybody is the enemy all the time. Somewhere we started a thing years ago that there was always an antagonist who wanted to keep things stirred up, and that was us. Unfortunately, our competitive nature says there is a loser and winner in everything. Consider that living this way is stressful and allows conflict to exist in everything.
Realize that there is enough for you and others, and you don’t have to hoard everything you have in front of you. In a culture where we have plenty, we should worry less and not panic. Many of our parents and grandparents struggled and were affected by the Great Depression. We live in a society of overabundance and should not act like we are going to run out. We should not rush to get more than the person next to us.
Drop past animosity from time to time. Keeping a record of wrongs or maintaining a ledger of finances, emotional hurts and offenses, or inequities causes unhealthy emotional stresses and comes out sideways when there is pressure or conflict. There is a reason that offering forgiveness and choosing to move past some hurt and discomfort would be helpful. Refuse to always keep score.
Work at sharing. There are persons and families that need assistance who may look different from us, be in a different socioeconomic classification, or may have had a tragedy or difficulty occur. Our decision to manipulate our position for personal selfish gain and refuse to get along with them is inhumane. Some day we may wish somebody would understand our struggles and needs.
Know that somebody is watching you and may be learning a lesson from your behaviors. The animals underneath my bird feeders have no idea that they’re teaching me lessons. They don’t care about the differences of other wildlife and do a much better job at getting along with each other than humans do.
Take a minute to ask yourself, “Why can’t we just get along?”
Take note and have a discussion with somebody you encounter today. Then do something differently.
