Gratitude

I thought I would take a moment to share how grateful and blessed I am to live in this wonderful country. I find it wonderful that we have the ability to share our opinions openly here in the USA with fellow americans. I am grateful that we do not all have the same opinions on every aspect, think how boring this great nation would be if we all thought the same way? As history has proven, it is the collection of differencing opinions that at times have done the most good. Our Constitution was not created by a group of men who had the same opinions, in fact it took four months, more or less, for them to finally pass the final draft that would then be sent to the people to adopt. These men were great men who had different opinions on a common belief (important to remember) and shared them and compromised to create one of the greatest documents ever.

How wonderful that they were able to overcome their difference of opinions and how grateful I am that they did. We now have the greatest document ever written for a government that is run by imperfect humans. As the majority of us have a common belief (returning to the days where we had less government involvement) I pose the question, “What could we learn from our Founding Fathers?”

What could we learn from them? Two men that I have enjoyed reading about are George Washington and Benjamin Franklin. There are a few common traits that I have found in both of these men and it relates to their presence and demeanor at the Philadelphia Convention. They were both well respected and people sought after their opinions, but the part that I find most interesting is their respect to others’ views even when they disagreed completely. As I never knew these men, but have only read about them from books, it seems to me that they understood that the best way to influence people was not to demean them by calling them names or trying to soil their name, but that the best way was to listen to them and build a relationship off a common belief or opinion.

As humans we all seek to be understood and to be respected. Because these great men showed respect to all, even when they did not agree, they were in return respected and held in great esteem. I like that during this time it was not the physical attributes or traits that made men, but it was the character of the man that mattered most. Both of these men, as well as countless others, had true character. They were known to be honest and full of integrity which can be seen in how they acted.

I challenge each of us to be more like them. We need difference of opinions because it helps us to see out of our own paradigm, but we do not need to be demeaning to others or decide to leave because others are imperfect at times. We are all humans and will all err. Lets focus on facts that pertain to what truly matters. As we do so we will see true and great changes take place in this nation that we all call home.