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Last fall when I interviewed women across the nation, they surprised me. I presupposed that when asked what one thing they would change immediately in the U.S., ending poverty or war would be the most prevalent answer. Instead, women in thirty-five states and the District of Columbia together said:
increase tolerance.
Tolerance is defined as “sympathy or indulgence for beliefs or practices differing from or conflicting with one’s own.” Women urged, can’t we just talk? Why all this vitriol and divisiveness? What happened to sitting around the local diner and having rousing debates about issues, remaining friends at the end of the night?
According to these wise women, one driver behind this crippling national intolerance is the array of informational or ‘news’ sources. With so many choices today, have we fallen into a rut that fuels intolerance? What happens when we get our information by listening, watching or reading only certain sources?
Tolerance Challenge
The 8 Weeks to Optimum Tolerance (aka the ‘New’ News Challenge) launched. I vowed to access a ‘new’ news source every week, grounding the challenge upon Aristotle’s teaching: “It is the mark of an educated mind to be able to entertain a thought without accepting it.”
At the end of the Challenge, I can share that it was a tougher 8 weeks than I thought it would be. The difference between information provided by various sources about the same issue or event is starker than I’d realized – the narrowness of perspectives powerful, name-calling popular. It was also a remarkable learning experience that catalyzed self-reflection and a renewed sense of hopefulness embodied by the quotes below.
The Five Lessons, Signs of Strength
Do Not Believe Just Because…
- Do not believe in anything simply because you have heard it.
- Do not believe in anything simply because it is spoken and rumored by many.
- Do not believe in anything simply because it is found written in your religious books.
- Do not believe in anything merely on the authority of your teachers and elders.
- Do not believe in traditions because they have been handed down for many generations.
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But after observation and analysis, when you find that anything agrees with reason and is conducive to the good and benefit of one and all, then accept it and live up to it.
–Buddha’s Path of Wisdom from the Dhammapada
Listen to Enemies, Show Your Strength
“In the practice of tolerance, one’s enemy is the best teacher.” –His Holiness the 14 th Dalai Lama
“Tolerance and patience should not be read as signs of weakness. They are signs of strength.” –His Holiness the 14th Dalai Lama
Check Your Ego
“Intolerance is the most socially acceptable form of egotism, for it permits us to assume superiority without personal boasting.” –Sidney Harris
Tolerance Isn’t a Betrayal
“Intolerance betrays want of faith in one’s cause.” –Mahatma Gandhi
“Tolerance implies no lack of commitment to one’s own beliefs.” –John Fitzgerald Kennedy
Renew the American Ideal
“The American ideal is not that we all agree with each other, or even like each other, every minute of the day. It is rather that we will respect each other’s rights, especially the right to be different, and that, at the end of the day, we will understand that we are one people, one country, and one community, and that our well-being is inextricably bound up with the well-being of each and every one of our fellow citizens .”— C. Everett Koop
Thank You!
Thank you for sharing this 8 Weeks to Optimum Tolerance journey with me!
Special thanks and love to the women who compelled me to take a look at my own intolerance and to do something about it.
As always, I welcome thoughts, ideas and inspiration from you.
( Picture right: In 2008, I was humbled to get the chance to meet His Holiness the 14th Dalai Lama — truly one of the most meaning-filled, transformational moments of my life. )
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