Many ‘Me’s

Hello there!

I hope you are well.  It was another robust week in my world.  We got child #2 settled in to his apartment at college, so now the home nest is emptied of offspring and in some disarray.  A fair number of furniture items have wandered off to serve the lads, leaving Lori and I with some re-arranging, re-organizing and re-imagining to do on the home front.  Step #1 is to simply regroup, which we have done reasonably well this weekend.  

I continue to ponder how we all make sense of the world.  The word “polarized” is thrown around a lot these days, certainly with some merit.  But even in less polarized times, we humans can and do hold a wide range of views and beliefs.  

Thanks to social media networks, I have noticed something that perhaps you have too:  There seems to be regional tendencies toward holding certain views.  My Texas friends tend to mirror each other in certain ways, as do my East Coast friends and my West Coast friends, and us Midwesterners.  This is not to say that folks regionally follow each other in lockstep - just that there are tendencies… have you noticed this?

To the extent this observation is accurate, I wonder just how different I might be if I lived somewhere else.  What views might Texas Neal hold that Ohio Neal does not?  The degree to which these versions of me might differ probably depends on how much time I spend in a different culture.  Maybe it works something like sun-brewed tea:  the longer you steep yourself in it, the more culture infuses into your views.

I guess this doesn’t have to be exclusively geographic - I can see a similar effect on people based on their involvement in faith communities, organizations like the military, or even professional/industry involvement. 

How much of our makeup is firm inner core, that remains unchanged regardless of our whereabouts?  How much is a softer, more malleable outer covering, influenced by the people and broader community in which we live?  

I’m sure this all varies from person-to-person, but it raises an interesting question:  What views are we holding today that might be different if we lived in a different community?  How we form our views, and how we revise them over time is fascinating to me.  Maybe I’m drawn to these questions due to the overall cultural climate in America right now.  Maybe it’s just the stage of life that I currently occupy.

I’m not sure about any of it, but I am thinking about it.  This week’s thoughts are not as cohesive as some I’ve shared in the past, but this is what I’ve got this week.  I could have pivoted to some food-centric topic and avoided this blurry missive, but decided to share it.  I think its important to consider why we hold our views, and what conditions are necessary for us to revise them.  This essay on The Backfire Effect speaks to this.  I guess I will simply leave it at that for now.

Sunday Supper
Since we are in the sweet spot of late summer, I recommend grilling a nice piece of poultry, meat or fish and pairing it with this Cheesy Broccoli Rice Casserole.  Enjoy!

Sunday Music
This Sunday’s musical recommendation is a concert performed by the electronic pop duo Sylvan Esso.  (The fact that they hail from Durham, North Carolina is purely coincidental.)  Enjoy!

Have a great week ahead!  Offer support to others.  Make good use of this day.  And let me know how I can help.

Peace & Love,

Neal