A friend of ours told me that it was only his wife that saved me from driving away from the Y one day last year with a "MITT!" bumper sticker on my van.  See, he had an extra one and thought it would be a funny joke to play on me.  Having a good idea that Romney wasn't my guy, she wasn't so sure I'd find it humorous.... 

While I very much appreciate her intervention, I am even more appreciative of her husband's mischievious intentions.  Because, you see, it came at a time when my facebook newsfeed and frequent off-hand comments from people around me had me stuffing not just my political inclinations, but a whole lot of me, deep inside, afraid that if I admitted I wasn't voting a certain way, my faith, values, and character would be under question.

So along comes our friend and his sticker, and I was reminded that despite our differing views, the friendship came first.  It's true, isn't it?  Man, I hope so, because it gets really hard to keep believing that.  It just seems like we are all so anxious to define people based on one aspect of their beliefs, or one thing they said, or one mistake they made, or one person with whom they hang.  For me, it just keeps coming back to relationships, as in, we need to have them.  I don't know how many friends I have on facebook, but I can guarantee you that a large percentage of them have no idea who I really am, with the reverse being just as true.  Don't misunderstand, I love me some facebook, but it does concern me how freely we throw some pretty strong words and opinions out there, likely not considering how it might sound to someone who sees things a little differently than we do.  What chance does that give us to form meaningful relationships where we have a chance to talk about things face-to-face, heart-to-heart?  The pollyanna, pacifist me would love to see a happy ending where we all agree about everything, but I am grudgingly a citizen of the real world where I know that will not be the case. 

So, for now, maybe we could focus on building some real connections.....and then bumper-sticker-bombing the people we don't agree with.....  That might be kind of funny, right?