I've mentioned in previous blog posts that one of my college Linguistics professors told us when studying a society, if you come to a word they can't define you know it's one of the most basic concepts in their culture.
I believe a lot of the conflict and, possibly, the outcome of the presidential election in the United States of America depended on two definitions: What is a human being? What is a marriage?
Yes, there were lots of other issues, but many people cast their votes because of one or both of those two concepts.
Is a fetus a human being? If people believed it is, they probably voted for Trump.
Is a marriage a committed sexual relationship between two people, or only between a man and a woman? How they defined that term determined a lot of people's choice between the candidates.
And those aren't the only things that divide us. Do we continue to welcome the poor, the huddled masses yearning to be free? Or do we focus on helping big businesses grow so they'll help our economy? Etc., etc., etc.
To me, this is scary. If we can't agree on basic things like these does it mean our culture is falling apart?
They say no democracy has ever lasted more than 250 years, and we're getting close to that number of years since our country was founded.
But I believe we can rise above all these conflicts by treating one another with respect and love.
Another of my professors told us "When the happiness and well-being of another is essential to one's own happiness and well-being, a state of love exists.
As a popular song from the days of my youth says, "Come on people...Let's get together and love one another."
We need to do that right now!
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