My aunt is one of, if not my very favourite person in the entire world. Our conversations are always every bit as riveting as this one was. I always feel incurably interested to know more about why she feels, thinks, and chooses to carry herself in the manner she does. That brings me to the big idea I've really wanted to bring forward. I feel a sense of excitement every time I come across someone who is different than I am. Let me explain this a bit further. In December 2008, The Economist released an article entitled "Why Wars Happen". Needless to say, there's rarely one lone cause of dispute, but the most common were deemed to be land (which includes resources, invasion, religion), national control, SELF DETERMINATION, and just general CONTROL. Most relevant to my topic of discussion, is the following extract from the article: "ideological change is both the most common cause of conflict and the roots of most wars". Basically, what this means is that conflict is sparked by our resistance to agree to disagree with one another's ideas instead of appreciating, or even merely accepting, that different people believe different things for different reasons. Let's look at an, arguably, fairly straightforward example: abortion. I personally feel extremely strongly about women's rights to make decisions with regard to their own bodies given the fact that they are the ones to give birth and carry the child for nine months. However, one of my closest friends as well as the majority of my family actually, given their religious dedication, view abortion as ending a human life. Amongst their reasons, lies the argument that the fetus has a heartbeat. As much as I am pro-choice, I find it interesting and actually kind of heart-warming, that the people closest to me have placed such an influential value upon human life. Their views may not line up with my own, but just as my aunt is 100% respectful of my standpoint, so am I with hers. The two of us AGREED TO DISAGREE. We agreed that being pro-choice is a good way to do exactly that; because to be pro-choice means that you can still choose not to support abortion, but yet you'd never dream of denying another individual, with what are likely unique circumstances to yours, the basic human right to control what happens to their own body/to make medical decisions for themselves. In other words, it is a DRASTICALLY more open minded, kind, and peaceful option. I suppose what I'm saying is that I feel as though that term, 'pro-choice', is SO important and SO very applicable to other topics of disagreement. Now, I can imagine some of you, just like I did at first, are asking yourselves "uhhh well soph, what about world views, practises, etc., that are atrocious and/or violate human rights?". Believe me, if anybody wrestled with this question of "how on earth can we agree to disagree on those things that lead you to question humanity altogether", it would be me. Nevertheless, I came to the conclusion that THERE, at the juncture of fundamental human rights, is EXACTLY where we need to draw the line. It is at this point that we MUST and SHOULD go on to voice/urge our opinion in a productive manner. ALL THAT BEING SAID, I can't help but find it neat that my sister supports the conventional education system through her love of sitting in a classroom and devotes the majority of her time toward schoolwork, while I might rather my classroom be all that the world has to offer. I can't help but wonder WHAT leads someone to choose their characteristics of a good life, even if they deviate from my own! I think there lies too often disregarded BEAUTY in the truth that different people find different things beautiful; and that maybe that truth is enough to overcome beauty standards...
Who cares if someone has a different definition of success or excellence than you do? At a certain point we need to truly grasp the value of promoting what we love, instead of bashing what we hate. Sometimes, that means agreeing to disagree and thinking, even for a second, that "hey, it's kind of really cool that they THINK OF THINGS differently than I do". But hey, feel free to disagree with me.
Who cares if someone has a different definition of success or excellence than you do? At a certain point we need to truly grasp the value of promoting what we love, instead of bashing what we hate. Sometimes, that means agreeing to disagree and thinking, even for a second, that "hey, it's kind of really cool that they THINK OF THINGS differently than I do". But hey, feel free to disagree with me.