Recent unfortunate political events in the world have led me to reflect briefly about acceptance, not just personal acceptance but also at a broader level.
Acceptance of other people’s differences in ideas, beliefs and sexual preferences is not easy, not when societal paradigms change as quickly as they have in the past two decades.
It’s often the case that with some people — especially with people who are a generation or two before ours — it is easy for us to hear from them things that in today’s sensitivities could be considered dismissive, bigoted or homophopic.
It’s also easy for us to point a finger at the older generation and attribute to them the state of society today. I want to invite to reflect upon this.
People are the product of their backgrounds. They are brought up in a social environment that assumes certain things as correct, and certain others as wrong or reprehensible.
I would be tempted to bring personal examples here, ones that I see in my family every day, but I won’t do that. It would be unfair to them.
The moral of the story here is, think before you judge. Inform yourself, understand the other. Disagree, if you must, but in the end accept that in their mind the other has a point.