It Is About Attention

"Behold, how good and pleasant it is when brothers dwell in unity." (Psalm 133:1)

Most people will tell you the country is more divided than united. And most of the same people, asked honestly, will also say we still have an enormous amount in common. Both of those cannot simply be true at once unless something has gone very wrong with how we are seeing each other. We are alike. We know we are alike. And we are living as though we are not.

Which means the division is not primarily about facts, or even about values. It is about attention. We are shown the small slice of one another that differs, constantly, at volume, by people who profit from our looking. And we are not shown the vast portion we share, because no one makes money on what we hold in common.

You have far more in common with your neighbor than you have been led to believe. You would discover it in about twenty minutes on a porch, and you will never discover it on a screen, and the screen is not sorry. So stop letting your sense of other people be manufactured by those who are paid to keep you afraid of them. Go sit with one person you have been told is your opposite. Attention is the whole battle, and the people who have your attention are deciding who your neighbor gets to be. Take it back, and spend it on an actual face.