How important is a sense of community to a person? Belonging?
Probably pretty important, right?

I am absolutely adrift in that sense. I have my roommates, one being my friend
and one being my sibling... but I don't really get it from them most of the
time.

Don't judge me, hear me out first, but I listened to a speech at the Republican
National Convention by Vivek Ramaswamy. Apparently he's had some controversies,
but whatever. I found the speech interesting. It was him or Tucker Carlson, I'm
not sure. Either way the point they made was the idea of unity. A small-scale
example of it is disagreeing with a family member on a political issue, and
still being able to sit at the table for dinner together. A simple sense of
humanity and a shared understanding that we all want good for people.

There are ways to argue this is impossible. Abortion is a contentious moral
issue and so is the question of whether all illegal immigrants should be
deported. Seeing someone take the opposite side on these issues can be very...
triggering, for lack of a better word.

But that's immature, or at least not as mature as we could be. The best thing we
can do (without just putting our opinions into law by force) is discuss,
understand, and come to a compromise if necessary. I believe that if you were to
psychoanalyze our nation as a whole, you'd see that there are points of trauma
in our collective "mind". Abortion, illegal immigration, healthcare, these are
all points of trauma for many people. So when we discuss them, there's no wonder
that we end up calling each other names and not coming to common ground.

The right and left are like two different minds.
The mind of the right is arrogant--all my beliefs are common sense and for the
greater good!
The mind of the left is traumatized--there's so much suffering and I just want
it to end; why can't you see that?

It only makes sense we can't discuss things with each other. The right needs
intellectual humility--being open to seeing another perspective. The left needs
all this suffering to be witnessed, understood, and taken seriously. We need to
be on the same page that suffering is bad.

It's all people saying things while plugging their ears. It's sad that we do
this. Maybe more meditation would help, idunno. I feel like our nation's "mind"
needs to mature.

*******

Anyway. Goodnight.