As we were driving to visit some friends yesterday in the wee hours of the morning I had some time to reflect on what is currently going on in the world, particularly the United States. Over the last several months we have grown more and more divided. What started with a “we can beat this together” attitude has digressed into a free-for-all of divisive discourse and a ridiculous “us vs. them” mentality.
I have followed The Oatmeal for a long time and have cracked up hysterically while reading his (warning: sometimes crude) cartoons. You may have heard of him because of the Exploding Kittens board game he created. A few months ago he put out a comic called You’re not going to believe what I’m about to tell you. It is phenomenal and EVERYONE should read it and reflect on their current belief system and evaluate how they may be sabotaging themself.
Click on the image below to be taken to the “classroom friendly” version of the comic. (It is long, but extremely well worth the read.)
At one point this year, as I was noticing tensions rising within the members of my team at work, I used this comic as a way to have an open and honest dialog about what was going on. For the people leaders reading this post, I would strongly encourage you to do the same.
As we finish out 2020, we have got to do better as a country about discussing the issue at hand in a way that is respectful and constructive, but that will only happen if we’re honest with ourselves and realize we may not have all the right answers and the more we dig in and tune out views that are different than ours, the more we sabotage ourselves.
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Follow Friday posts are posts where I highlight someone I follow as a way to promote and encourage other people.