Today, I want to focus on the importance of each of us finding ways to de-escalate situations. Here is the truth of the matter: We’re all constantly seeing the national spotlight focus on the most extreme viewpoints, the most unique, edge-case situations, and a number of divisive issues. No matter where you turn for information, it feels like people are pouring gas on the fire rather than grabbing a fire extinguisher to try to calm things down. If we are not mindful of the information that we’re taking in, our culture and society will train us daily to tend toward outrage and drawing battle lines.
I’m not saying that we should turn a blind eye to what’s going on around us. There are absolutely issues happening in the world and our communities that we should engage with and have opinions on. However, there are probably fewer of them than we would think if we use the news, social media, or conversations with people in our lives to feed our feelings of anger or fear.
Like I said before, we’re living in a world where it’s very normal to focus first on disagreement and let that fester into anger. That approach can help us find other people who think the same way that we do, but it doesn’t do anything positive for our relationships.
Let’s make sure that our homes are places where we know we won’t agree on everything but we will still be committed to loving and being there for one another. No matter how somebody votes or what source they get their news from, let’s ensure our family knows that we’re pulling for them and we’re there for them. It feels like we’ve lost track of what’s most important over the past several years, and I want to encourage people to get back to focusing on our true priorities. This de-escalation will help us all win more often at home.