Care for the Other

One of the things that I like about living where I do is that there are so many different kinds of people. It’s probably my favorite part of Doubt on Tap every Tuesday night, the diversity that surrounds the table.

A number of years ago I would not have been able to sit around the table at Doubt on Tap. Why? Because I would have been trying to “win”. I would have been looking for opportunities to “win the argument”, I would have been baiting people into making philosophical or logical errors to beat them in the “debate”.

I would not have been there to listen and learn. I would have been there to win.

I didn’t really care about other people. I only cared about myself and being right. If you asked me whether or not I cared for others, I would have said, “Of course! Why do you think I want them to know the truth?” But, I didn’t care.

A few years ago that changed. I stopped worrying about winning. I started to care about other people, legitimately. I wanted to learn from them and hear what they thought. I really wanted to deeply understand their view of the world. I asked questions and I sincerely wanted to hear the answers.

When I began to care about others, a whole new world opened to me. I began to see the beauty in the other. I was no longer afraid of them.

I wonder if people who are different from one another might realize that the other is a person of infinite value if they would begin to do this one thing, care.

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