Tag: acceptance

You can visit the Center of the Population for the State of Colorado. For the year 2000.

We saw the memorial for that recently during a family hike. There’s a plaque and a big “X” that marks the spot, next to the parking area of a state park outside Denver.

Knowing that we were visiting the population center was not an awe-inspiring moment for any of us. Knowing that the population center may have moved since the year 2000 was also not an awe-inspiring revelation. But showing park visitors the 2000 population center for years to come was important to someone. And they convinced some another group of people that it was important enough to spend money on. Maybe even public money.

My point in sharing this with you is that we need to accept things that are important to others, even if they are not important to us. And even if they represent money, time and energy that we would have invested elsewhere.

mutant-mint

We went out to eat the other week and I grabbed a mint on the way out the door. Indeed, it was a mint-and-a-half.

That reminded me of my dad’s coin collection. He used to love collecting mutant coins that were mis-stamped in production. Sadly, in a sibling’s divorce, that collection was lost to the errant spouse.

Takeaway: what does this mean to us? Well, a few things:

1. How can we accept the “mutant” people around us?

2. How can we not just accept them – but appreciate the ways they approach life differently than we do?

3. This brings me to why I hate the word “tolerance”. That implies just putting up with someone. Isn’t it much better to love that someone? Even if it’s really hard to love them, the rewards can outweigh the pain.

Important to someone

The mutant mint