The Great Debates

Sometimes I look around and see the things people argue about. The things that matter most to people. The important things. I was moved to think about these things when I happened upon a status of someone that I know from back home. It was a debate, of course, as they stage in small towns often.

Except this debate WAS ABOUT CHICKENS. And I'm not kidding.

The small town adjacent to the minuscule town from which I come is considering a proposal to allow homes in the town to have a coop of 6 or fewer chickens if they so choose. Some people take the "it's organic and healthy and whyshouldntpeoplebeallowedtodowhattheywantaslongasitdoesntbotherotherpeople" side, while others take the "it's smelly and weird and iliveintownsowhydontyougobacktothecountrywhereyoucamefrom" side.

So that's happening. And the debates are still raging.

And then I scrolled a little further down my news feed, where I saw a status from someone who lives in Chicago, who couldn't get down her block thanks to a police barricade because it was the first day of the year with moderately warm weather, which is wonderful and a long time coming for most of us. But of course around here warm weather means that it's extremely dangerous, because the warmer the weather, the more violent the streets become. And there's debates there, too. Big ones. About who is at fault for all of this and how to make it better or at least how to help. And there are more than just two sides to that great debate.

But the violence is still happening and the debates are still raging.

Oh this life of ours. And this world of ours.

I kind of maybe believe that everything is important, or at least I definitely believe that most things, big and small, are important, and if they don't seem important to you well damn it that doesn't mean it's not important to somebody. Every perspective matters, from main street to wall street to the street-you-avoid-if-you're-being-honest-with-yourself. People care about their lives and they should care! I hope those in the great Chicken Debate of 2014 understand that I actually believe it is a valid thing to discuss chicken coops. Let the debates rage, I suppose. But. But. (I have that dastardly conjunction after every complete thought I've ever had. It's a curse.)

How do we go about these great debates? Whether they be about chicken coops or crime rates?  Do we put the needs of others above our own? Do we look to the interest of others? Do we, in humility, value others above ourselves? Do we love one another?

I'm, of course, asking these questions to myself. Just when I'm tempted to type a comment on a heated status or respond to a misjudgment spewed hatefully in the labyrinths of crime watch blogs, I try to ask myself this stuff. Usually it results in me refraining from the comment I intended to write. Sometimes it doesn't. Sometimes the process of these questions prompts me to go write a silly little blog post like the one you happen to be reading. Because when people come to a consensus or at least agree to disagree concerning the chicken coops or the crime rates, at the end of the day, we're still neighbors down the hall, down the street, and down the block; we are still members of this crazy world and live and work and love together in the middle of it.

I guess the important things, underneath all that chicken wire, in the end, are the people after all.