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 The truth is a slippery thing. 

Two people can experience the exact same thing at the exact same time and come out of it with completely different recollections. Both will be telling their truth. And both will be coloured by past experiences. I have a tendency to be fairly insular. I try not to talk about things that can be considered controversial unless I am really close to the person I am speaking with. 

We used to have something called "polite conversation". There were certain things you just didn't discuss with people. Religion and money being the top two major topics to be avoided. Conflict was avoided and conversations for the most part stayed fairly superficial, depending on the company you were keeping. 

Then we stopped being so polite. Everyone was entitled to everyone else's opinion. You were going to hear it sometimes whether you wanted to or not. Newer generations have been raised thinking that their opinion is the only thing that matters. And older generations have forgotten that someone else can have a different opinion and that you can hear other voices without either telling them that they are wrong or without implying that your opinion is the only one that matters. 

Being separated for two years really isn't helping either. We sit alone in our bubbles and forget how to listen, we only know that we have been sitting for so long, apart. So when the opportunity arises we are all so thirsty for human interaction that we forget to take turns speaking, and more importantly, listening. 

I am hoping that as things open again, and we can gather, this ability will come back. Like learning to ride a bike. It's just a muscle that needs to be worked. Maybe then we can actually hear people again. Not just be in such a hurry to have ourselves heard that the interaction is wasted and one-sided. 

I can be just as bad as everyone else, I get so excited to talk to someone outside of my household that everything I have been thinking comes out in one giant verbal dump. I am almost certain that most of it doesn't make sense. Add that to my tendency to speak rather quickly, and I feel bad for whoever I am talking to. 

Everyone is looking at the world in different ways and their takeaway is not going to be like everyone else's. It's time to get back to listening and thinking, not just talking. 

We tend to think that anyone's opinion that isn't exactly ours is wrong, or they just need a little more information from you to realize that what you are thinking is more correct. And that to back down is weak, instead of realizing that being educated by someone else's viewpoint. 

Today's song is something along those lines.

It's a Good Life if you Don't Weaken by (my favourites) The Tragically Hip. For me, it's a song about being there for yourself and others. That by going through the struggle you will get where you are supposed to be. The song was written at some point in the early '80s as the band was going through all of the usual pratfalls that most bands seem to go through on their way to success. 

Gord Downie was the main lyricist for the band, although all of The Hip's songs are credited equally to all five members, and this song really became popular after Downie's diagnosis of glioblastoma. Many thought it was written in response to his illness, and were surprised to discover otherwise.