Growing up on an upstate NY farm, bailing hay, feeding cows, and working the earth, my worldview was very simple, “pray for rain when we need the hay and crops to grow, and pray for sun when you want to harvest them.” What I saw was pretty black and white. That is not what usually happened. It would rain when the hay was cut and trying to dry, and rain when we were trying to get the crops in. The life of a farmer. So many things were out of our control, and we simply had to adjust to the weather.
Having left farming life a long time ago, those memories still mold my thoughts in today’s culture. I see things as I saw them in the days of my youth. It will rain and it will shine, that is a guarantee, and our job is to adjust to the conditions to make our product work. I see this happening in our world, however deeply divided it may seem. In my mind, it is either going to rain or shine, and in our civilization our job is to adjust to make it work.
I am not sure there are many former farmers on this site, however, I think that the point I am making can cross into any “field”. Whether we are talking about immigration or gun control, there has to be a middle ground for people to come together on. I think that the product of 24/7 news has made millions of dollars for some, and we have been the duped audience. The one side battles the other for ratings, and it seems the ratings are based on how much we disagree rather than on how much we agree.
When it’s time to make a decision, we tend to blame the other side rather than come together with the other side to come up with a solution. What if the gun issues or immigration issue would become a problem to solve rather than an issue to divide? What if we came together and worked the problem versus blaming the other side to boost our ratings?
I made a decision quite a while a go to not listen to a talking head that didn’t have any solutions. As you can imagine, this limited my media intake. I guess my farming days once again come into play. I can’t yell at the sky for raining, or for shining. I simply have to make the adjustments and solve the problem. Likewise, I can’t seem to stomach someone who wants to blame rather than solve.
In the business that I am in now, I work with lots of people from lots of different points of view. Some are conservative and some are liberal. This doesn’t seem to matter when we come to the table with the sole purpose of solving a problem. It’s amazing when we apply disciplines like active listening or common respect to one another. I may still be a naive farm boy from NY, but I am pretty sure this will still work with the massive issues that we are facing today.
Thanks for reading. Let’s make this our time to solve some of the greatest issues facing our culture. Let’s come to the table again, have a meal, and share our concerns. Let’s meet our neighbors again, and have them over for a beer and conversation. Let’s not forget, that we agree on much more than we disagree on…
Lonny's Blog 