NOTES OF CONCERN…
…Jack Blair
With recently completed elections both national and local, I am reminded again of how many different opinions we Americans hold on issues that relate directly to how we live our lives.
Over the course of my life I have found persuasive arguments on competing sides of issues to be interesting to study intellectually.
It takes time and an open mind to be able to weigh the merits of arguments, sift them into the personal opinions you bring with you from your own life experiences, consider the depth and breadth of the experience of the person making the argument, and then reach a decision as to where you currently stand on the issue in question.
Even after all of this there is the danger of being unduly influenced by the speaker. I can remember a President of The United States for whom I did not vote who could, in a few short minutes on television, lead me in my thinking to exactly where he wanted me to be. Every time I listened to him I had to force myself to remember the larger context of what he was addressing, his position on many other issues, and how I needed to guard against his wonderful personality and presentation.
There are some things I have learned over the years about conflicting positions on important issues. Perhaps the most important, in my thinking, is that although there are a huge number of opinions on all the issues it is not necessary to “marry” any one of them.
That being said, for the person who wishes to be truly wise ,it is necessary to “date” all those opinions.
Happy New Year to my readers.
I hope you will prosper and be healthy and happy in the months ahead. And I hope you will continue to read as much as you can about all the issues that confront us in our lives.
