Chances are if you have heard of the NFL and are aware that a big game called the Superbowl is happening in a couple of weeks you have heard about Richard Sherman from the Seattle Seahawks and his after game interview/rant on Sunday. (And if you haven't, this is not actually about sports so you can feel free to keep reading. If you want to catch up- here is the interview).
And perhaps if you even cared enough to listen to Colin Coward on the radio yesterday or read a post on your newsfeed or follow the hastag #RichardShermanHadMeLike, you know A LOT of people have an opinion about the whole thing.
I have always been a big fan about the whole opinion thing. I LOVE to have them, argue them and defend them...just ask my parents...or Jimmy...or my children. Who can argue that cheese is the best food out there or that Camp Cherokee is the only place to even consider sending our kids for the time of their lives?
And perhaps if you even cared enough to listen to Colin Coward on the radio yesterday or read a post on your newsfeed or follow the hastag #RichardShermanHadMeLike, you know A LOT of people have an opinion about the whole thing.
I have always been a big fan about the whole opinion thing. I LOVE to have them, argue them and defend them...just ask my parents...or Jimmy...or my children. Who can argue that cheese is the best food out there or that Camp Cherokee is the only place to even consider sending our kids for the time of their lives?
And so it will come to no surprise to those that know me best that I too had an opinion on Richard Sherman- one during and immediately after watching Sherman's interview. "Whoa, dude. Your are repulsing poor Erin Andrews. Cocky much? How about you Chillax." (Yes, I do actually still use the word chillax). And yesterday morning I nodded my head as I read those posting supporting arguments to my position. I noticed there may have been other things out there in opposition, but why would I read them?They don't support what I think.
Fast forward a couple of hours and if you are riding to the park with your family and your husband has on The Herd with Collin Coward you might have heard THIS. If you don't want to listen, he basically said that we love our sports but want a certain behavior from our athletes. That we don't even take into consideration this guy just won a huge game and got a camera and mic stuck in his face immediately after a huge play. My favorite quotes were, "Do you want your wife to tell you she loves you, or do you want her to actually love you?" and "We want the two dollar pair of socks, but don't want to know about the sweat shop they were made in."
And there it was. The Flip Flop. I agreed exactly with what he said which was the opposite of what I had just believed, fairly strongly, just minutes before. This my friends is by far not the first time I have quickly changed an opinion.
I am learning these days a lot more about opinions. We base them on our experience and knowledge at that moment. When we are reading something, Schema Theory teaches us that we use our existing knowledge to add new knowledge and understand what we are reading. This means that two people reading the same passage may not remember the same things, or view the things they both remember in the same way. No two people can have the same exact schema or experience. Many things make us have similar experiences- culture, gender, race, religion, marital status, parental status- but we all look at things differently.
All different. But does that make them wrong? If we are bringing our schema, our experience to a situation, can we be wrong? And when we draw a line that someone is wrong, does that cause us to use our experience to divide instead of unite? Girls vs. Boys. Blacks vs. Whites. Conservatives vs. Liberals. Us vs. Them.
What if we Flip Flop that? What if we listen to someone else sharing their experience and instead of saying: "No, But." we say in the words of Richard Rohr, "Yes, And." How would that change our world? Heck, how would that change our day?
I follow a page called Buddhist Boot Camp. Yesterday they too were talking about opinions:
Our opinions and beliefs tend to change depending on time, place, and circumstance. and since we all experience life differently, there are multiple theories on what’s best, what’s moral, what’s right, and what’s wrong.
It is important to remember that other people’s perspective on reality is as valid as your own. this is why the first principle of Buddhist Boot Camp is that the opposite of what you know is also true.
No matter how certain we are of our version of the truth, we must humbly accept the possibility that someone who believes the exact opposite could also be right (according to their time, place, and circumstance). this is the key to forgiveness, patience, and understanding.
No matter how certain we are of our version of the truth, we must humbly accept the possibility that someone who believes the exact opposite could also be right (according to their time, place, and circumstance). this is the key to forgiveness, patience, and understanding.
"What the caterpillar calls the end of the world, the master calls a butterfly" —Richard Bach
I am not naive enough to believe that all opinions are as simple as what you think about the Richard Sherman interview. But what if our conviction to be right actually is?
