“When you look deeply into your anger, you will see that the person you call your enemy is also suffering. As soon as you see that, the capacity of accepting and having compassion for them is there.” —Thích Nhất Hạnh

“It’s so easy to laugh. It’s so easy to hate. It takes strength to be gentle and kind.” —The Smiths

I’ve been reminding myself of these concepts, this way of looking at things, as politics seem to divide us more than ever before. The Others (or, if you like, the oppisition) are still people and as such deserve to be treated first with kindness and respect. I’m positive this sounds extremely naive, but it’s the way I would like to be (and expect to be) treated. Any change starts with me (another naive and simple notion, but one has to start somewhere) and so kindness is the way forward for me. I especially need to remember this in traffic and on Facebook because I lack patience sometimes (okay, a lot) which is a way of  being unkind.