You know that period of time when you are waking up in the morning and you drift in and out of awareness? This morning my mind was stuck thinking about the word ACCEPTANCE. I decided that this word is the most dangerous and dividing word I know. Why? At first blanch one thinks, what a lovely and inclusive word, but then the reality of the word flows in. The lovely side of this word is; -I love and accept you for who and what you are. -I accept and respect our differences. -We accept each other’s love and company. -I accept the reality of who I am. -I accept your gift, kindness, love, appreciation, you get what I mean... The dangerous side of this word is; -You must accept our differences and let me have my way. -You accept my __________ or you are a bad person. -You must accept my beliefs and abandon your own. -You must accept my reasearch and if you don’t you are stupid. -You have to accept every detail of my private life and if you don’t you are evil or stupid or whatever degrading word that is assigned to you. SEE WHAT I MEAN? My personal belief goes something like this; I accept and know who you are, I may agree or disagree with you, but respect your right to be who you are and believe what your heart dictates. My job is not to force you to accept anything. My job is to love you for who you are. That said if what you are or what you think harms others or is dangerous to you or the people around you. I accept the responsibility to do what I need to too protect others. I think the biggest mistake in the world today is this notion that you are dumb if you don’t accept my conclusions. Or you are evil for not accepting my beliefs. People have forgotten about finding common ground. People having abandoned the concept taught in civics class. I am showing my age since civics is not taught any more. I find it very sad that our world is a very divided place. I am sad that the word acceptance is so loaded and can be so negative. I think I will focus on the positive things that I associate with this word and I will accept the positive, constructive side of the word. I will focus on the good in each of us. We all have good and we all have bad no matter who you are. Be positive people, respect and accept that we are all different and most important know that in my house you can be who you are and that I will love you. I will now dismount my soap box. ??