We live in a polarized society.

Some perceive the current national direction as offering hope and restoration. Others anticipate only pain, despair, and loss. Yet although we openly battle over politics and social issues, the real battle is over our national self-identity. We are polarized and divided by conflicting visions of who we are and who we should be as a nation. Moreover, this struggle over our national self-identity has divided communities, split families, and destroyed friendships. Because of opposing political and social beliefs, we either avoid select topics in our conversations or skip family and social gatherings that include people whose politics offend us.

Should we try to bridge the political, social, and religious gaps that divide us? Should we seek to express what we think and believe, perhaps with the intent to change or convert the other to what we think and believe, Should we seek to listen and learn what another person thinks and believes so that we, accepting them as they are, can find some common ground between us? Or should we instead give up on people whose thoughts and beliefs we fervently and diametrically oppose?

These are the questions I ask and the answers I seek - maybe you as well.