I'm sitting at home this evening drinking a glass of wine, cat on lap, listening to music I cannot stand. That's because the fiancé is listening to music, it's not my choice. And normally he wouldn't make me listen to something I can't stand, but it's his (and my) good friend's music and the friend asked the fiancé to listen and let him know what he thought and he needed the feedback fairly quickly. So I sit here listening to music I cannot stand. It is by no means the quality of the music that makes me not like it. It's just not up my alley. There's nothing inherently bad about the music. And despite that it's not my cup of tea, I really want our friend to do well with his music.
So I listened to something I don't like for the greater good of my friend's success.
Today I listened to a radio talk show I cannot stand. Not Glenn Beck or Sean Hannity, but the show of a very good friend of mine. I cannot stand her show not because she is bad at her show. She is very very good at her show. I just cannot stand that type of show. But I heard about something that happened on it and then saw a comment about it that I thought was probably unfair and I was interested to know the context so I listened to it. Because regardless of what I feel about her type of show, I want my friend to succeed in her chosen career.
So I listened to something I don't like for the greater good of my friend's success.
These are very individual choices and I don't advocate that everyone has to make constant sacrifices for the good of someone else. If that were the case you'd all be playing Club Penguin these days. While I won't ask anyone to go through that if you're over 10, I do thank everyone for the decade of supporting a certain travel company; you still have to, the fiancé still works there. It's that everyone makes these types of choices all the time. They do something they'd rather not in order to support someone they care about and to support that person's hopeful success.
And that's my problem with the vitriol around health care. The ultra-right wingnuts and the ultra-left nuts swing so far to the extremes for the purposes of attention, ratings, or advancing their real agenda (which is attention and ratings) that they forget that there are some really core basics about even basic healthcare for all that will benefit everyone in increased productivity and longer term healthier population which is cheaper for everyone.
But the ultra right wingers would oppose a recommendation to brush your teeth twice a day if it came from the Obama White House. And these days the ultra left wing would freak out if Obama ripped a fart, claiming he was contributing to global warming.
The rest of us of course, try to sift through all the bullshit while actually trying to live our lives. And for many, trying to live their lives is in hoping and praying that nothing bad happens that taps out whatever meager health coverage they have.
So maybe the extreme right and left could just listen to what the majority is saying, even if they don't like it, for the greater good of getting something worthwhile passed?
Yeah, didn't think so. Back to your regularly scheduled programming. At least the fiancé is done listening to the music I can't stand.
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