Politics and World Events
How do you manage the upset that many of us feel regarding politics and world events?
Are you ever concerned about the attitudes and behavior of your spouse?
How do you effectively address that concern?
Our Experience
It usually comes as a gentle tap on my thigh underneath the table when we are with company.
That is how Libby reins me in, or should I say, attempts to rein me in when I talk about political, national, or world events.
Of course, I do not think I’m talking about politics. I’m talking about righteousness, justice, truth.
In the last few years, I have heard more concerns and complaints from couples than ever before regarding their spouse and these issues.
“He’s so angry. All the time. All he does is watch the news of one point of view,” said a woman:”
“He’s just an angry person now,”
“She’s always listening to this one podcast, and the guy’s crazy,” said a husband recently.
Perhaps you insulate yourself in your own little world, content to manage your Personal Good Life. You’re proud that you never watch the news and you stay as un-informed as possible. (We Christians are expert at this approach. “We’re just seeking the kingdom like Jesus told us to.”
Or perhaps you are a both-sides person.
“Both sides are wrong, so I stay out of it.”
That point of view falls apart quickly when one knows anything about history.
It is easy to look back and clearly see that one side was not just wrong, but it was evil, even if ‘good people’ accepted it or supported it. That is what is meant by being “on the right side of history.”
I cannot think of a time in history when evil has not been accepted, denied, or ignored.
Can you?
That is humbling and should make us suspicious of ourselves.
So, are you upset yet that I have not condemned something, supported something else?
My senators can tell you what is my point of view. (I never call them when Libby is present.)
But I am more concerned about what happens to me when “I am right.”
“You have this set point of outrage and grumpiness,” Libby says.
“And it spills out in too many conversations.”
“You don’t ask questions and you don’t listen. You just make pronouncements,” she adds.
“Uncle,” I yield.
“I get it.”
A helpful question for me recently has been this:
“Right now, are you thinking and speaking as a child or as a wise adult?”
When I become self-righteous, determined to be right, condemning of others, obsessed with the latest news, the answer is clear.
Check out the shortest chapter in the Bible, Psalm 131. It’s three verses basically say that instead of driving myself (and others) crazy, I will “still and quiet my soul, like a weaned infant with its mother.”
Only then might I be “salt and light,” in this broken and evil world.
How do you manage yourself in times like this?
