The Pain Caused by Hatred

I have noticed a destructive "my team/their team" mentality that seems to surround every difficult issue. It polarizes people, drawing them to such ends of an extreme that they no longer see those on the other side as even human. They criticize and punish and abuse and hate and destroy each other. Whether it's a political party, religious affiliation, or opinion on any myriad of subjects, we as human beings tend to do this.

Why? On one issue in particular I feel trapped in the middle. I look to the extreme ends of both and see violence and hatred. Why?! Why won't they listen to each other and acknowledge the concerns and struggles and pains and humanity of their fellow human beings? I KNOW that many issues are incredibly difficult, but we're never going to solve ANYTHING if we keep letting the extremes dominate the whole. We get so caught up in our own paradigms that we completely forget (and disregard) the realities of humanity and love and suffering that surrounds everyone else, especially those to whom we have a hard time relating. Stop the finger pointing!

You might wonder what has spurred this sudden outburst, and my answer is that these thoughts have ricocheted around my head for a while, particularly concerning a certain issue, but I think absolutely applicable to many.

This issue is gay marriage, and a recent facebook update reminded me of it. I LOVE my gay friends and I LOVE my church, and both people for gay marriage and against gay marriage are fighting for what they believe to be right, but the accusations and hatred proliferated by some people -though certainly not all or even most- from both sides deeply sadden me. I already went through the anger stage and it's over. Now when I hear someone say something hurtful I just want to sit down and cry because we as humans are destroying each other with our hate and I don't know what I can possibly do to fix it.

A Report on Irony

On Tuesday in lab around 10:45 I yelped at the sound of yet another Erlenmeyer flask shattering.
"Damn that!" said Eric. Grumbling, "Those idiots studying fluffy subjects like humanities have no idea what it's like to actually work or think." Dumping the crystal weapons into a container marked 'glass only,' he continued, "All they do is write papers about their thoughts and feelings where there's no right answer. What kind of an education is that?"

Today is Wednesday. I wish I could tell you what time this happened, but I don't remember. Couple hours ago maybe. After lecture Hannah swiveled on her chair to face Rachel. "I love intellectually stimulating discussions like this, don't you?"
"Yeah" said Rachel, "because we're finally in higher level classes that have weeded out the narrowminded scientists."

Must I choose?

Dear Sushi,

Dear Sushi,

So I don't want to beat around the bush or anything, but I thought before getting to the point I'd apologize for the whole wasabi/guacamole mix-up when I first tried you. It wasn't your fault, but I still cried. It scarred me. Thank you for giving me some space. The other night (as you know) was one of the most beautiful nights of my life. Your taste lit my soul on fire rather than my tastebuds. I just wanted to say... well... I'd like to continue our relationship because... this is tougher than I thought... because... I love you.

Yours, Aly