The code of the schoolyard, Marge! The rules that teach a boy to be a man. Let’s see. Don’t tattle. Always make fun of those different from you. Never say anything, unless you’re sure everyone feels exactly the same way you do. Dan Castellaneta

I try really hard to keep my mouth shut. I also never write all that I think or feel or wonder about. But there are times when my filter…malfunctions. It isn’t that I think that I know everything. Actually just the opposite. I know I don’t know anything. Hence my obsession with reading the news and listening to bi-polar opinions. I believe it allows me to consider “possibilities.”

So…sometimes I try to open up the possibility to others. When I read or hear someone who is so sure, so convinced that they are right, well, I go a little nuts. I hear the rhetoric spill forth with conviction and unwavering confidence. And their arguments sound familiar because they are. I heard it recently, like the night before from the latest TV Political editorial celebrity. And if you think I am directing my words at one political party, you would be…. wrong! I think both sides are equally arrogant.

There doesn’t seem to be a space for a real discussion. Everyone I talk to is so committed to their agenda. They become an expert at deflection or distraction. They define “the real issue” as if they really know what that is!

I know it is difficult for everyone to open our minds to the possibility. So perhaps we could instead… open our hearts. but that would be breaking the schoolyard rules.

Am I tattling?