I have always said that it takes two people to make a marriage. It takes more than two to build a family and a whole lot of families to build a community. Our community here at families.com is comprised of a wide diversity of individuals coming together out of common interests whether they are related to family, marriage, hobbies, careers or more.
To that end, our community here is one that I am quite proud to be a part of. I don’t necessarily agree with the thoughts or ideas that are expressed by every individual – but I fully support their right to say them. To that end, Sherry – an absolutely brilliant writer in her own blogs here – wrote to me and asked if I would mind that she share her opinion on the legislation of marriage issues that I have brought up and discussed here.
The More The Merrier
My response was immediate – absolutely. I didn’t care if she agreed with me or not. She can think I’m a loon (happily she doesn’t) or she can think I’m ill informed or she can think any number of things – it doesn’t matter. What matters is that she gets to voice her opinion. She gets to voice her feelings on the subject.
Far too often, in our country and in our marriages, we don’t always say what we think or we believe. Maybe our opinion would be unpopular. Maybe we are not as certain of our argument or why we believe the way we do. Personally, I believe snakes should be wiped out – I can’t really defend that because I love nature – except for snakes – but snakes terrify me.
That’s a rather silly analogy, but perhaps you see my point. We should be cautious of injuring someone else, but we should never be cautious about expressing ourselves. Too often, we let the extremes on either side of an argument carry the banner and we don’t listen to any of the other voices.
When Marriage Goes to Extremes
When we do that in a marriage – it means we limit our communication to the issues that strike a chord – the issues that will divide or unite us. We don’t bank up our positives and we forget that we can disagree on a subject and not be enemies. We’re all guilty of this. We’re all a bit hidebound. We’re all a bit afraid that our opinions, our feelings and our thoughts will be dismissed, stomped on or ignored.
I told Sherry I would love to see her thoughts and she’ll be sharing those with you this week. I encourage you to read her blogs both here in the Marriage blog and elsewhere (she’s got a lot of great ideas!) – but don’t just read them because you agree or disagree – read them because her opinion matters.
Your opinion matters.
My opinion matters.
When we have a dialogue – we are better for it – in our marriages, in our lives and in our communities. We don’t have to agree – but we do need to respect and to listen. I hope you have a great Sunday and that the weather in your area is smiling on you.
We’ve got our first named tropical depression of the season – so brace yourselves and for our readers in Florida, Louisiana, Texas, Mississippi, the Carolinas, Alabama and Georgia – here’s to a tamer hurricane season – may the labors of the last year not be disrupted by the fury of the storm!
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A History of Marriage & Family