Dear Diary …
Election Day. What has become months and even years of attacking, arguing, fighting … and I’m not even talking about the candidates … I’m talking about you people on Facebook … but we have FINALLY reached the day where the vote is finally here.
And I’m not going to get in the ring with any of the fighting … and I’m not even going to lash out at all of you people that are doing it … because it ain’t gonna help anyway. We are all so deeply dug in to our views and opinions, that there’s no hope of climbing out of the ditch in time for this election.
Instead … I’m going to look to the future and try to help us all moving forward.
The other day, I was having a conversation in the car with my seven year old daughter. She saw a bunch of election signs in somebody’s yard and asked what I thought was a very profound question … “Why is everybody so angry at each other about the election?”
And I don’t even have to answer that question to show you that there’s a huge problem here. She’s seven. She sees what’s going on, and even she knows that something ain’t right. So … let me see if I can summarize all of this in a way that we can all hear.
At my daughter’s school, she has a program called “Happy Healthy Cooks,” it’s a really cool class that teaches the kids about food, nutrition, and how to embrace new ingredients and cuisines that they maybe haven’t tried before.
And one of the main messages of Happy Healthy Cooks is a thing called “The No Yuck Rule.” And the No Yuck Rule is very simple … it’s OK if you try a food and not like it, but you are not to say “ewwww” or “yuuck” about that food. Because even though YOU didn’t enjoy the food, there might be another person in the class who DID like the food, and when you say “that’s gross!” … that can make that person feel bad, and they may even change their mind about the food, simply because you said “yuck.”
I think it’s a great rule, and I also think that we need The No Yuck Rule to be followed when it comes to our politics too. Because that’s where we’re at right now … everybody is completely dug in on their opinion, and anything that doesn’t agree with that opinion is “ewwww … gross!!!!”
That’s not how democracy works. It’s not about never changing your opinion and just trying to force everybody else to agree with you. It’s about taking differing opinions and learning how to come up with a solution that is best for the country as a whole.
But right now, both sides think they got the only opinion that matters. And I got news for ya … both of you are lima beans right now. The food you’re slingin’ tastes terrible, and nobody should have to eat it. You don’t listen, you don’t compromise, and you don’t have any desire to come up with real solutions. You just wanna point fingers and call each other yucky, without actually doing anything about it.
I challenge you all to apply The No Yuck Rule to your life. Actually … I DARE you to do it! And you know what will happen?
::: GASP :::
We may LISTEN to each other and come up with REAL solutions that help this country move forward. Amazing!
Go vote today … it’s an important thing to do. And I’m not gonna try to sway you one way or the other, I just want you to think about what I’ve said, and think about The No Yuck Rule and how we can all get better in the future. That way my daughter and her classmates can come in and clean up this vomit mess of a meal that we’ve all created.
Till next time Diary, I say, goodbye.