Are we going to continue to observe Columbus Day with all the controversy surrounding the new views about Christopher? Will the Electoral College go away? Is it right for sports figures to express themselves? These and other controversies swirl around us these days: Gun control, the President, plaid or stripes, seems like everyday we have to deal with someone bringing up another topic to review. Kind of makes you want to go screaming into the night, doesn’t it!
The thing about all these issues, these controversies, is that we want to be aware of them. We want to think about them, but we do not want to allow ourselves to fall into the trap of making them emotional. This is not always easy. Way down below our conscious mind we have attached to pretty much every aspect of our beings a link between the issue and our self-identity. Until we separate these connections we cannot make a clear decision about anything. No matter how reasonable the issue is, if we are trying to make a decision about it from an emotional basis, from the place of self-identity, we will always come down on the side of self identity, and this is rarely the best perspective from which to make a decision.
Controversy is good. It calls us to examine the larger picture. The more a controversy disturbs us, the more emotion we find attached to any discussion, the clearer it is we are not dealing with the issue, we are dealing with defending ourselves from challenge to unexamined beliefs. What a gift!
I have written a book called It’s All About Me which introduces a thing called the Involved Observer. This book addresses exactly this issue and it may be helpful if you want to engage others in a rational, informed manner.
