Slices of Life
Things we can agree on - part 2
Hey savvy news reader! Thanks for choosing local.
You are now reading
1 of 3 free articles.
Last week focused on the myriad things we – as humans – can agree on. What started as a short list morphed into something more extensive, so much so that it encompassed two columns.
Turns out agreeing isn’t as hard as we tend to make it out to be. Who would’ve thunk it? But I’ll cut to the chase. And get us started with:
We can agree to love laughter and a good joke. Some of us may prefer dirty humor, others silly stuff. But laughter is a universal uniter and a universal healer. It feels good to laugh - not at the expense of others, but with others. And laughter, when shared, proves to be the universal language. Even babies understand this. They learn to laugh before learning words. How profound.
We can agree to love vacation. Camping in the woods. Glamping in a fancy treehouse. Cruising the Mediterranean. A week at the beach. Seeking thrills at a theme park. Fishing on a lake. Climbing a mountain. Waiting for Old Faithful to gush. Kayaking through a gorge. A weekend staycation. Experiencing the excitement of Broadway and the Statue of Liberty. Driving across country and stopping at odd places that sound interesting. Eating your way across Italy. There just may be an infinite number ways to vacation - and while some might not be your first choice, none of them is wrong, and you don’t question, or judge, another for choosing a different vacation location from yours.
We can agree to love sports. Football, soccer, swimming, badminton, volleyball, pickleball, baseball, basketball, golf or even curling (during Olympic years) – we can all find our own jam. And it doesn’t matter if my next-door neighbor prefers pickleball over golf, we can all still get along – as long as both of us agree to stay out of the kitchen.
We can agree to love music. It is another universal uniter – unless you are a country fan and I like hard rock. But, seriously, music has something for everyone: from classical to heavy metal, from Broadway to opera, from nursery rhymes to jazz, from traditional hymns to gospel songs. Music, like laughter, speaks a universal language. It can evoke emotions. It can trigger memories. It can ignite love. It can distract us from the day’s troubles. We may not agree on the type of music we prefer, but we do agree that is okay. You do your country. I’ll do my folk rock and we can agree to disagree. No hard feelings either way.
We can agree to love babies of all kinds: puppies, kittens, goats, hedgehogs, squirrels, piglets, hippos, elephants and humans. Babies are intrinsically cute. Well, except baby snakes. I’m not sure about baby snakes. Or eels. Or blob fish (don’t ask.) You might disagree with me on any or all of that, and that’s okay. Just don’t hate me for it. (You see how silly that sounds in this context?)
We can agree that life is often hard, but this world is a beautiful place and people, in general, are not only seeking, but trying to demonstrate that beauty themselves. We can agree that most people are doing the very best they can with the circumstances and resources they have. We can agree that each person sees the world through his or her own and unique perspective. Sometimes, these perspectives might clash with ours, but that doesn’t make them unworthy or null and void. Just as our own perspective isn’t unworthy or null and void.
We are all worthy. We all get to have a perspective. We all get to form our own opinions about dogs and cats and ice cream and sports and everything in-between. (Even – dare I say? – politics.) Just don’t hate me for saying that last part out loud.
Jill Pertler is an award-winning syndicated columnist, published playwright and author. Don’t miss a slice; follow the Slices of Life page on Facebook.
