“People are a lot more than their political inclination.”

I read that statement today in a Washington Post article about an older man who found happiness in a wildly diverse group of coffee drinkers at a local café. People came there every day to sit and talk about everything, including politics, bringing pointedly different views. But they were respectful of each other, and they cared about each other.

I belong to a group sort of like that. We worked as policewomen in the same department…umm…decades ago. We’ve discussed enough politics to know we have differing perspectives. Our backgrounds are different. Our lives have taken us down different paths, but we find a way to meet about once a month, and we’re important to each other.

To keep the peace, we don’t talk politics when we are together. In that way, we are something like families who navigate the perils of divisive politics by not going there. But one thing I know beyond a shadow of a doubt: If one of us is in need, others will step up. One friend fell and had to have a hip replacement. She was single and had no one to stay with her through her early recovery. Another member moved in with her and took care of her. Sometimes we reach out to share stuff. Or just help each other laugh. We are there for each other. No matter our differences.

Living in the deep, politically conservative South in a county, shall we say, “sparse,” as far as my current party of choice, I have to remind myself that my neighbors are good people. They would not hesitate to help me fix a tire or a fence or feed my animals, should I ask. And I have, and they have.

I have many fears about the world we live in—fear for our freedoms, for the system of law, for the health of our planet. Sometimes I wonder if this experiment of humanity might just fail. Other evolutionary lines of humans did. Sometimes I wonder if we are worth saving.

And then, despite the sky-is-falling rhetoric that rains daily on my head, I read about the actual progress the world has made in key respects, such as extreme poverty, child mortality, improved water accessibility, and education levels. Or someone just does something utterly and randomly kind, and I want to do everything I can to make sure we are still here for the next generations, to give them a shot at doing it better.

 I write about what moves me, following a flight path of curiosity, reflection, and imagination. 

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