I had a very short conversation with someone a few years ago after they sighed “I miss the way things used to be” within earshot of me.

Without straying from my own family’s experience I ticked off several ways that things are better now:

My great-grandmother couldn’t vote until she was in her 40s.

My mother couldn’t have credit in her own name until she was nearly 40.

I didn’t know at the time this conversation took place but I couldn’t have gotten a business loan in my own name until I was almost 30.

I’m grateful I ended the conversation before I had to make amends for something I said in haste. I wasn’t going to change their mind. When the same person sighed the same thing near me again sometime later, I sighed and walked away.

It pains me greatly when I hear leaders rail against a problem and they seem to be trying to work the word “woke” into a sentence more times than the next person. I don’t hear them embracing a different way of thinking. I hear them holding onto “the way things used to be.”

The definition is subjective, of course – my definition – “to try to understand and accept the value of people’s experiences that I’ve never had.” My definition hopefully is evolving.

I was traveling literally halfway around the world when the recent horrible mid-air crash happened over the Potomac River. I was shocked but sadly not surprised when I heard someone blame the crash on the FAA’s practice of hiring a diverse workforce. When I flew home a few weeks later my most fervent prayers for safe passage began as we came into US air space, even as part of the flight took us near the Middle East.

I can only continue a practice I started three or four years ago – to listen to and read the opinions of people I disagree with. Sometimes strongly. My only requirement is that they are honest. It’s my problem if my phone gets launched into a corner of the sofa while I’m listening to them. I can try to do better.

I hurt myself when I don’t listen to people I disagree with or don’t understand. I sell myself short on what I’m capable of if I only follow my own thoughts and ideas.

People who make decisions that affect our laws and policies are not only selling themselves short if they discount the value of diversity; they are doing a great disservice to the people they serve.

I learned some time ago that it’s okay even actually good that I don’t have all the answers. It taught me to be wary of anyone who thinks they do.

I’m going to be looking for and following (and voting for) people who don’t have all the answers. I hope I find a few!

The children’s message at church today was very visual. Carrying around a rock is like carrying around a sin or shortcoming. Drop the rock, drop the sin. Let God take it. Keep reminding myself I know only a little. Be open to the message I don’t know I need to hear….