By: L.I.S.A. B.
“If you only look left, you will be blindsided by the right…
If you only look right, you will be blindsided by the left…”
Being a parent uncovers responsibilities, fears and awkward references you would never have considered before your kids kids arrived. It is easy to drape yourself in hypocrisy as you teach your children values while simultaneously live by your own. It can be unnerving, but yet reassuring as children seem to have the itch to correct us when they see us not living what we teach them. We know the levels to hypocrisy, and the cognitive range they lack at their age. But sometimes, you can apply those same simple values to our own lives.
Staying fit gets harder as you age, but we still relish that those younger than us are here as a reminder to stay in shape. The kids and I go for a jog a few times a week, and recently they’ve been allowed to jog ahead (within my yelling range) so I would not slow them down.
The one thing you have say to them before crossing any road, “Look both ways before you cross the street.” I’m sure they are sick of us repeating it, but it is important and vital to their safety.
So on yesterday’s jog, they all decided to run ahead. As they approached the stop sign, the oldest started to cross the road, which the middle decided to follow suit. I yelled, “Stooooop”, and steadily jogged until I met them at the top of the hill.
I asked my oldest if he looked both ways, and he replied yes. I then asked if he checked for his sister, he had no response, other than to hang his head. I relayed to him again the importance of looking out for yourself, and taking the responsibility of your siblings. Yes, they were only 15 feet from our driveway on a non-busy “residential” street, but I’ve attended two funerals in which someone was hit by a car near their home.
The oldest mumbled the usual phrase of, “this road is never busy anyways” and I reiterated the downfall of comfortability and how it is easy to miss what is coming when you assume there is nothing to see because you have seen it before.
Are you that type of parent? Yes, everything can be a life lesson for our children.
So what about us? Should we not take my own advice in this politically charged world?
The assumption of no-risk is a plague in our society. We have been inundated with fast-paced, lost in translation information that desensitizes us to the importance of evaluating what we take into our brain.
Though many are breaking the chains of misinformation, some have given way to the easiest of solutions: Ignoring the information.
Look, it can be quite the task to watch Democrats and Republicans and decipher who is right, wrong or who is telling the truth. You must also decipher what is at stake, the angles and who is pushing said agenda.
Well, most of us do not want to, nor have the time to look at “both sides” of the argument. And with President Trump in office, the fervor to be objective in this country is not where it ought to be.
This isn’t about President Trump exclusively, but since he is in office we must still remember to look at everything and not just the hot headlines.
No matter which side you ride, we have become weary in our approach to life. Our recon and information gathering has been dwindled down to only focusing on one side, and that side is usually the one we are comfortable in. This line of thinking is congruent with our approach to the workforce and our society in general.
With our generation living through this boom of technology, it has become too troublesome to sit through hours of content just to make a decision on what we believe. Why watch President Trump and House Speaker when you can just watch the one you ride for on Twitter and stay comfortable in your conviction? Why check the stats of the Giants defense (unless in fantasy football in which there are monetized stakes) when your favorite team is the Cowboys? Can you cycle through all 30 NBA teams? Can you gather the PER of all 200 Shooting guards, or can you only focus on just one?
Even worse than confining your mind to just one thing that makes you feel comfortable, is the reasoning of assuming right and wrong while ignoring the other side all together.
“If you only look left, you will be blindsided by the right…
If you only look right, you will be blindsided by the left…”
SouthernFriedSushi 