I don’t know about you, but I’m beyond tired of walking on eggshells. And I don’t mean employing tact or extending grace, because I think those are important. I mean feeling like I need to tiptoe around everything I do and say for fear it may anger or offend someone.
I don’t go out of my way to aggravate people – that’s rarely my aim. Admittedly, it was sometimes an effective tool when cross-examining a witness to knock them off their game, but I’m not talking about litigation. I’m talking about everyday life.
We’ve reached a point where nearly every subject has some sort of political slant to it and every stance taken is viewed through an “us or them” lens. Instead of Ronald Reagan’s 80/20 Rule, we seem to be stuck in “all or nothing” mode. And that’s a losing proposition – for everyone.
I wish I had an easy answer for it. I don’t think it’s to start stomping around willy-nilly – yes, you may need to break a few eggs to make an omelette, but that’s only likely to create a mess.
I do think, though, that we’d all benefit from learning to relax a bit and not go through every social interaction on high alert – and maybe remembering to laugh on occasion and not take everything and everyone so darn seriously – least of all ourselves.
Life and the world are hard enough without piling all that added baggage on top of them.
This “Moore to the Point” commentary aired on NewsTalkSTL on Friday, August 25th. Audio included below.
