Tread Lightly or Else…

Agree or Disagree

To not be aware of the volatility of the political climate in the world today, must mean you never turn on any electronic devices, such as the TV, radio, or plug into the internet.

Politics and religion should never mix, but somehow they do.

The policy to never talk about politics and religion with your friends is a wise decision. Imperative if your friends harbor a complete opposite opinion to your own. I value my friends even if I have a different opinion. Why let something like politics pry your friendship apart. A day will come when things change and the scenario will once again return to peace and calmness.

Social Media Dangers

Even your friends on social media can be extreme right or left. Better never to agree or disagree on the social channels. You will be sure to offend one side or the other, and the ugly part it is now in print! Unless you can take a stand and are in a position to fix the problems, you are so much better off staying out of the discussion.

The argument is not worth losing friends over something you had no control over in the first place or have any power to change anything.

I watch as my social media buddies get fired up about one thing or another and then after many weeks of rant they slow down their input. Is this because others are not stirring the pot and giving them attention or do they now have a change of heart?

My friend did a wonderful post on how truth and karma can play roles of things where perhaps we should tread lightly. Read here.

The internet is great for business, education, entertainment, and in other ways it has had a huge negative effect.

Can everyone play fair?

We have instant news and when it matters; it is great and other times we would be better off without the knowledge.

Being Unplugged, a Time for Evaluation

My TV was out of commission due to our cable company. We had the internet, so we were not isolated from news, but we didn’t sit glued to the TV after dinner to find out the latest news.

The sabbatical from the TV was first met with reluctance and frustration.

Now what?

We could sit and read, but being on the internet all day, we needed a break.

Old standby, we went to our storage room and retrieved the board games.

Imagine!

We wanted a game that didn’t require much thought. Vowing not to keep score, just play for relaxation, a novel idea!

We picked Tri-Ominos. After settling in for a few evenings of that, we decided it was a lot of fun and we missed the old times of playing games.

After a week the cable company came to fix the problem. We decided to leave the game out on the table and if there is nothing worthy of our time on TV, we would play the game. Amazing how many times  we have played the game in the evenings since. Nice thing is we go to bed with less stress and we connect to each other instead of just sitting in front of a box being entertained.

The less you know of things you can’t change, the less stress. The mental adrenaline doesn’t serve your body well to become so involved with matters beyond your control.

Oh, I care about a lot of things in my local area and those are the things I can do something about and impact my community in a positive light. Unless you want to stress yourself out or unless you can make a difference in the political arena, it is better to leave it to those who can.

I believe in community service and I do a lot of volunteering. I see how my efforts help change things. My impact is small comparison to the global situation, but if everyone did their part in the community where they live, we can change the world.

But for now I tread lightly as anything else makes no difference to others, only irritation for me and them. Not worth the stress or the time or losing friendships.

What do you do when your friends and family are on different sides of a volatile subject?

Comments are welcome.