Christmas season has begun with a bang. The weather’s colder and you can’t get through the mall without having your foot crushed under the heel of a cell phone obsessed shopper or being rung out by a cashier who is more interested in her half masticated chewing gum than your purchase. I can barely survive without a few choice swear words. Maybe patience isn’t my strongest virtue. But the virtue I’m going to work on this season, is tolerance. And I don’t just mean tolerance for the man who smacks you in the ear with his shopping bags. I mean tolerance for different religions and ethnicities and even, sexualities. After all the saying goes, “peace on earth and goodwill towards men” . It does not say, peace on earth and goodwill towards men, but not those who like other men or who practice Islam .
You don’t have to like the lives or decisions others choose to make, just as you don’t have to like the horrible reindeer sweater your Aunt Mildred wears. But is it too much to ask just for a month, if Americans can forget their differences and embrace the similarities in all people and religions? I know I may sound a little hippy dippy here, but any change is for the better. Maybe stop using the word “gay” as slang for “uncool”, or not give the turbaned passenger on your flight home a dirty look. (I often have to remind myself that Islamic does not mean extremist.) The anger or fear you see in yourself is often reflected in another person’s eyes. It’s not an easy thing to do, it has become ingrained in us to fear that which we do not know. I might not succeed every time in changing my perceptions, but every time I do, I’m a better person for it.
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