After last week’s moderate temperatures, I thought maybe fall was just around the corner. But we are back to reality this week and the triple digits are ever present.
Summer persists, but more relentless this summer is the news cycle. We just can’t seem to catch a break.
I miss the days when politics took a break in July and were boring. Those days are gone, and the news cycle is magnified by social media.
As you know, I have a love-hate relationship with social media. In the wake of the attempted assassination of a presidential candidate a few weeks ago, I had to take a break from social media. I’ve written about this. Conspiracy theories and untruths abounded, and I couldn’t take it. After about a week, I thought I’d give it another go.
And then we had a shake-up at the top of the Democratic presidential ticket.
Social media was inflamed once more. I had to turn it off again.
And then about a week later, I figured things had calmed down. I logged on Sunday night just to see all the chatter surrounding the opening ceremony of the Olympics in France.
I had to turn it off again.
It’s like the old movie with Tom Hanks and Michael Clark Duncan. The supporting character John Coffey talks about how his head just hurts from all the nastiness in the world.
In the Stephen King-created storyline, Coffey indeed sees all the nastiness in the world, and it’s too much for him to handle.
Social media is like that for us. It shows us all the nastiness and not much of the good. Which is sad because the good always outweighs the bad. Social media doesn’t tell us that.
I’ve done a lot of traveling this summer for work, and I can tell you folks are okay. I can also tell you that we have more in common than not. I have seen things just this summer that reiterate this.
I was in Borger, Texas a couple weeks ago and had dinner with a group of people from all over the Panhandle. I don’t know what their politics were. It didn’t matter. It never came up.
I do know that everyone in the room stood in reverence when the Borger Honor Guard presented the colors. Their Honor Guard is a collection of volunteer veterans— old men with gray hair.
The Honor Guard uniforms are black western cut jackets, black western cut slacks and black Stetson hats.
The entire room was silent as they went about the business of honoring Old Glory.
I spent some time on Long Island this summer. Aside from the training I was there for, I spent the evening in Port Jefferson, New York. It is a quaint little seaside town on Long Island Sound. Picturesque is the appropriate term.
After dinner I walked to a beachside city park. A classic rock band was playing songs by Old Crow Medicine Show, Lynyrd Skynyrd and the Allman Brothers. Southern rock on Long Island— I felt at home.
There were a couple hundred people enjoying each other and listening to the music. They were people of all races, all colors and all ages enjoying a summer evening concert together.
They were dancing. They were laughing. They were singing along with the music. I don’t know what their politics were, I didn’t ask.
I also spent some time in June at a newspaper convention at College Station. I hosted a panel of college students speaking to mostly boomer-aged newspaper executives. The goal was to find common ground among generations, and we did just that.
The conversation was enlightening and refreshing. There were lightbulb moments across the room. One of those students graduated last week and she starts a job next week working for one of the people she met in that room. It was an amazing experience, but politics never came up. Again, I don’t know everyone’s political leanings. I didn’t ask.
Again, we have more in common than not.
Social media divides us, puts us in our camps, and that is not healthy. It’s an illusion. Don’t succumb to the illusion.
More common ground can be found in a 30-minute conversation over a cup of coffee than a three-hour spiral down a social media rabbit hole.
As I’ve always said, feel free to come by the office sometime for that conversation. The coffee is on me.
Source: Vecteezy.com