Climate change: a harsh topic that most wouldn’t dare to bring up at the dinner table.
That’s not the case, however, with Dana Brizee. We talk about politics as if we were discussing last week’s game. Although the arguments can become heated, we learn from one another and put our feuds behind us.
Our last argument about climate change did not end so happily. I was so frustrated with the conversation that tears began to swell up in my eyes and I said through them, “You won’t be here when the planet goes to shit, but I will.”
Those tears and those words stopped my dad in his tracks and got him to think about how his words affected me.
It’s OK to cry about things — to be passionate and righteous in your life because you can only do it once.
Political issues are important to our everyday lives and while talking about them can be uncomfortable, it is also how we learn from each other and the world around us.
Alex Brizee | Argonaut
We all want to have close and meaningful relationships with each other, and while you may think that avoiding the other side is what it takes to have that —that’s not it.
Vaile Wright, a psychologist at the American Psychological Association agrees. She believes that the way to have those relationships is by talking, and if we avoid certain topics with different-minded people, we are just feeding into an already divided system.
Though my tears made my father uncomfortable, I wasn’t upset at him, just at the conversation.
People may wonder why something like climate change is so emotionally important to me. As an advocate for many causes, I fully believe we should put our heart and soul into the things we believe in.
Why support something if you wouldn’t cry for, die for it or live for it? The causes you care for should be as an important as anything else in your life.
After we got through the awkwardness of that part of conversation, my dad confessed to me that he doesn’t always think about things that differently than me, he just likes to play devil’s advocate and wants me to expand on the way I view the world.
Even through the tears I appreciate his desire to make me think about the other side. I grew up in a liberal area and now living in Moscow’s liberal bubble, a lot of the people who surround me think like me and it can be thought provoking to talk to my dad.
Though my dad’s hope is that I will become politically moderate one day — I appreciate knowing why people think differently than me.
If it is truly a divided world, then we need to think about ways we can start compromising. Without that mindset, nothing will get done.
As recent times have made the political spectrum seem even more opposing, if we all had a Dana in our lives, maybe we would be able to come together.
Alex Brizee can be reached at [email protected] or on Twitter @alex_brizee