Love and Acceptance

This has been a week of political differences, some cheering, some angry, some sticking their heads in the sand. I have heard many opinions, on TV, from friends in person and on Facebook.

I usually try to avoid butting heads with my friends over politics.
It’s difficult in these hard times not to be emotional and I have friends of all persuasions. They have reasons for believing as they do and so do I. I don’t like conflict and try to avoid it but when it is something I feel very strongly about, I will take a stand.

My husband and I have political differences. He is strongly conservative and I am more moderate. We have been together over thirty years and have changed in our thinking since we were twenty-five. Which is natural if people learn, grow, and think.
On many things we agree and if we don’t, I prefer to just agree to disagree. As long as our basic beliefs and values are the same, we are fine. I also feel somewhat the same way about my friends. I don’t feel as strongly about sharing all the basic beliefs and values with a friend but do expect mutual respect, loyalty and love.
With Facebook, it is different. Many of my Facebook friends I have never met in person. I have become friends with those individuals on line because we share some mutual interest. So we don’t have a background of the above requirements for friendship.
But I do have some standards for those “friendships”. I still want to be treated with respect. I guess I call it FB tact. It’s OK to disagree respectfully. Your page is YOUR place to tout your opinions so please don’t dirty MY page with your snarky /rude comments. I have the right to state my opinions about politics, personal issues  of which I believe strongly and comment about my life as do you on your page. If I do state an opinion on another’s page, I try to be respectful. I have to admit I have failed a couple times when emotions (mostly hurt feelings ) got the better of me.
If  “friends” cross this line too many times, I have reached the point where I either hid or even defriended them. Sometimes it just isn’t worth the energy it takes to remain FB friends.

We always have to weigh things in life. Is the friendship worth balancing the disagreements? Is there love and respect in the relationship even if we disagree about many things? And are the things we disagree about very important values of mine where I have to take a stand?
An example might be: if my husband all of a sudden thought extramarital affairs were something he now believed in. That would be a deal breaker for me.
Or if a friend really hated dogs and constantly made comments to me about how could I stand having a dog etc. Being mean to my dogs would be a no brainer.  THAT would also be a deal breaker for me.
Every person has to set their boundaries of what is acceptable and what isn’t in a relationship. It can be painful. It is difficult.

And most of the time if you are wise, you have chosen friends who respect you as you respect them.  If not, you may need to hit “unfriend”.