Me too, and it often gets me in trouble. I have a rule, I only makes friends with people who think differently from me. Most of my friends are conservative or religious, and even though I am neither, being friends with them, hearing them, and having them hear me make all of us better people. We have lost the art of discourse in this country. I feel like a vast majority of people no longer have the desire to talk and listen about things they don’t agree with. We’re more narrow minded than ever. And I say that NOT because some people disagree with my opinions on things, but that they aren’t willing to discuss it at all. Does that make sense? It just makes me sad, because intellectual discourse is the foundation of true democracy and I see them both slipping away.
Very interesting point…
I grew up in a small, conservative town. After my children were born, my dh and I lived in south FL for several years. Talk about a culture shock! I mean, I was a girl who had rarely driven down one-way streets. I’d never seen the things I saw down there. It really changed my perspective.
I remember a talk my mil and I had one time while shopping in an outlet mall near our house down there. She noticed someone with a lot of tattoos and commented about it…maybe something about my kids never getting one.
I told her that if that was the worse thing that my daughter did, and if she was a wonderful person who loved the Lord and served Him, and all she wanted to do was get a tattoo or get weird body piercings, then who cared? What matters most is the heart.
My dh, overhearing (and fearing) this conversation, eased away from us. :teehee:
But for me to say that was a HUGE step from where I had been only a few years before.
I was concerned so I had to ask ya about it! yes, I couldn’t find a smiley with a hip replacement and crutches, LOL…or the ankle braces because as you can see I’m wearing them now, too! LOL, at least they are preventing ankle dislocation, but they sure are pretty…NOT
Sorry, didn’t meant to hijack, I had asked ek about her crutches…
[FONT=Comic Sans MS][SIZE=3][COLOR=#9932cc]A search didn’t bring it up…where is it?[/COLOR][/SIZE][/FONT]
It’s in this OT forum
Experience is what gives us perspective. It concerns me when I talk to my husband about his students who live three hours from Los Angeles, four hours from Las Vegas, two hours from snow in the mountains and four hours from Phoenix and they’ve NEVER been out of the valley we live in. Un-believable! My son is a homebody, I don’t think he’d ever leave the house if he didn’t have to. He is spending his first year after highschool traveling. I did not give him a choice on that. If after going out in the world, he decides to live as a homebody that is fine, but he won’t live his life with no perspective!
Oh the woes of our ankles, eh? 
:teehee:
Experience is what gives us perspective. It concerns me when I talk to my husband about his students who live three hours from Los Angeles, four hours from Las Vegas, two hours from snow in the mountains and four hours from Phoenix and they’ve NEVER been out of the valley we live in. Un-believable! My son is a homebody, I don’t think he’d ever leave the house if he didn’t have to. He is spending his first year after highschool traveling. I did not give him a choice on that. If after going out in the world, he decides to live as a homebody that is fine, but he won’t live his life with no perspective!
I agree! I think it’s great that you are going to have your son travel.
I have friends who have widley varying beliefs. Some agree with me, some COMPLETELY disagree. I consider myself a traditionalist…in that I think tradition and perspective are both important. I believe it’s important to know/understand and sometimes follow traditions. However, I also believe that traditions have to change just as perspectives and society change. Just because something changes doesn’t mean it’s for the worst, just that it’s different.
I will not have kids until I’m married, I will not live with someone prior to marriage. I would love to stay home with future children and raise them myself rather than put them into daycare…I would, I want to do it for me. Not because I think it’s right for all, but it’s right for me.
I love discussing politics, religion, law & order, mental health, garding, knitting, history, etc. with my friends. And I LOVE it when we disagree. I get exposed to new perspectives and ideas, my mind has even been changed once in a while. I’ve heard some say over the years “I want to know what the enemy thinks, so I talk to them.”
If you disagree with me, think I’m wrong, think I’m misguided, you are NOT my enemy, you are my friend who happens to disagree with me. I want to know your opion because I value you, I value your thoughts, opinions, mores and values. We don’t have to agree to live together, we don’t have to share these things to be family. We don’t have to see eye to eye to care/love one another. But we have to be respectful, nice, courteous, and caring to one another to be happy healthy and good.
I hope this makes sense. 
No matter what a person’s opinions are, they should be free to express them.
Think of all the men and women who have died to make our beautiful country free.
But with each freedom, comes a responsiblility. Re: We cannot yell FIRE in a theater unless there is really a fire! So if we all use our common sense, we can totally enjoy the differances in everybody.
I LOVE the differances in people, it is what makes the world go 'round!
My dad used to tell me not to get into any discussions regarding religion or politics. But I love a good discussion. My mind is totally open to new ideas.
And I always remember that I can be aggressive, without being rude.
I am kinda new here, and I just want to say that I love this site.
sue
Hear hear. Travelling is so important, and I wish more young people (especially american young people) would travel more. You can learn so much from other cultures, discover new things, new food, new languages (new yarn 8-)), etc. I’m american, but I live in Europe and I feel really lucky to live in a place where I can jump in the car and be in several different countries within just a few hours!
I agree, traveling can be such a great experience and chance to learn new things. Unfortunately for me, and I imagine for many other young people (American or otherwise) it’s rather cost prohibitive. And socially, something reserved for “rich kids” :eyeroll:
When I was in high school I took advantage of a two-week exchange program to France at an incredible deal. Even then, with few financial obligations to speak of (I only had to pay for my car/insurance in high school as far as bills go) it still took SO MUCH EFFORT to scrimp and save every penny so I could pay for that trip (and I worked a LOT). I’m glad I was able to forgo new clothes, shoes, eating out and trips to the movies for months to pay for that trip…but with financial obligations now, it’s sadly going to be a lot of years before I get that kind of opportunity again :pout: I just hope I won’t have to wait until retirement!
HamburgKnitter I agree with you and it’s so incredible for you to live somewhere with such diversity so close by. Totally jealous! 
I also think this thread has taken such a neat turn into an interesting conversation. Huzzah!
I so totally love this forum. I try to read a lot of the threads and posts but can’t seem to squeeze in all. I think it is great that people share their lives on here. I don’t get to talk to alot of people around where I live because my neighbors and friends live very busy hectic lives. I think the mods are great. I made a post about a pattern I found and couldn’t quite get a good pic of it so I typed out the whole long bloody thing. I ended up getting a message from a mod about my post being edited because they said that I infringed on copyright laws. At first all I could think was “d@#*, I put alot of work into that” and that I was under the impression that to infringe on copyright laws was only if you were trying to make a profit. But then I realized that regardless of what I thought, the mods only did what they thought was right. In the future, I will refrain from typing out that whole long pattern and just post links to the freebies and such. And now it seems I digress from the topic. All I really wanted to say was that to be a mod here must be hard work and that I seems that they do their level best. I find it awesome that I can come on here and find all sorts of things of interest and varying viewpoints. And just how nice was that of Amy to put that topic back up for us to look through even though she didn’t have to. I mean WOW how many other forums will actually take the time to do that? I have found that alot forums will just block someone from accessing… not me, but I have gone to some and wondered why I don’t see any new posts by certain members. I hope that everyone stays so understanding on here and that no “bad” people who like to be overly mean ever come over to our happy little home here. Happy Every Kind Of Day To Everyone (that is to say any holidays or special days coming up that I don’t know about) 
Well I’ve been around now for two years and the quality of the peeps is totally as great as the first day I joined!
OT!
I watched Starship Troopers the other night, and saw that the main girls name was Carmen Ibanez…
Inspiration? 
NSavage… great post! Love that last part:teehee:
CI…yes, I agree, the PeepQualityQuotient PQQ is off the charts!:cheering:
It’s from the book, not the movie.