Wendy. Periodically. Difficult Topics.

Thanksgiving is coming up and members of your family voted for the other candidate for president. Oy! How do you navigate the table? Do you go? Do you not invite certain relatives? Do you set boundaries for discussion? Have you “cancelled” your family member because of their vote and won’t talk to them?

I am going to push you to not “cancel” anyone, unless they won’t hold reasonable boundaries. You can relate in other ways to your friends and relatives that focus on other things than the election. In this polarized time, we need to exude compassion, extend olive branches and reclaim nuance. Perfectly lovely people have voted for the opposite candidate. If we are going to move forward away from these stupidly either/or times, we must embrace the complexity of humans. You are not your vote and neither is your friend or family. Find where you intersect and connect. Agree to disagree, stay away from arguments and honestly find each others humanity. If someone won’t engage in that kind of reaching out, either push them to do so, or walk away with compassion.