For me it must start with trying always to realize a simple truth. A truth so simple, and obvious, in fact, that it is nearly always quite difficult to truly notice, and appreciate.
That truth is this:
That those who follow the path laid out, generally, by what is suggested in the very nature of either side of the divide between believing in systems derived by either of the dictates of my two most elemental opposites in Cosmolosophy, have something in common. Something that can be seen
in the dictates of a "Higher Power" (or the "Great Father," or "Father Fortress," as I like to refer to it) or the dictates of a "Higher Purpose" (or "the "Great Mother", or "Mother Earth," as I also like to call it -- understanding here that either side can have its representative be either gender in the old sense, so it warrants dropping the old declarations of he, or she) that those followers, each in semi regular fashion, in following those dictates, actually can, and do, come up with both useful, and necessary ways, from time to time, to deal with existence, given the current state of contingencies, in the current way of operating, in the current state of the operating environment, that they find themselves in.
By the same token, of course, both sides have a similar semi regular facility for suggesting other options to deal with current reality conditions that are the opposite of the previous statement. Which is of course where much of the difficulty in continuing negotiations, for either side, comes from.
The much more important realization here, however, is that in no way does getting it right, on occasion necessarily prove anything regarding the particular belief system itself. Any more than getting it wrong, on occasion, necessarily proves anything either.
To put that in other words, just because a good way to do things, for a while, comes from one side, or the other, does not automatically prove the supremacy of that belief system. Only that, as I see it, that the people using it can be as creative, in a challenging situation, as anybody else, in other systems (not that they necessarily will be).
As well to say, though, that, at different times, and different situations, the strengths, and weaknesses, of either side's dictates, in living these very disciplines, that must be maintained, to adhere to those dictates, in significant numbers of occasions, gives one side, or the other, the better chance of providing the better choice determination, and the subsequent carrying out process. to succeed in that challenging situation.
This is why we must listen to believers in whatever system they might walk a life path in. They are people, first and foremost, just like us, trying to provide for the whole range of human need; and in most instances these days, in quite difficult circumstances. And just because an idea comes from somebody in an abhorrent belief system to you, does not automatically preclude the ideas viability, for what we might face in any given moment. Any more than it should automatically suggest the validation of the belief system itself, of the believer in question, either.
We must listen and we must try to alway work accomodation. Which is the whole point of trying to figure out a "Grand Compromise," in the first place. To do otherwise is to continue waring amongst ourselves, hands at each other's throats, even as the great ship of life we live on, sails on to a quite discernable, and very terrible, abrupt confrontation with the cold facts about the carrying capacities of vastly integrated, vastly complex systems. Something that I still believe we could avoid if we mobilized as a Nation, comprehensively; finding a way to make our work be the living of individual communities, equitably sharing all of the tasks it takes to make a particular community go, coordinating together as a Federation of communities, or City States, or whatever else you'd like to call them, so that each community has not only its share of what the nation as a whole can do, materially, but that each also supports that total, Federation effort, to the degree that they are able to; with people power, and regional support of Federation Wide, productive ability, and material assets.
This is at least part of what I think about when I think about the statement "I will fight no more forever."
What about you.
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