You are probably very familar with the Freudian concept of "narcissism of small differences." I learned of it since my return to Medium from a couple of essays by David Todd Mccarty (he's always a good read)(https://medium.com/ellemeno/is-social-media-right-for-you-29ea079f9c56 https://medium.com/ellemeno/were-on-the-same-side-we-just-disagree-6d29e20902c5) This unrelated one you may thoroughly enjoy https://medium.com/ellemeno/beginning-again-at-fifty-five-30362a0f31dd but I digress...my intent when I started this comment was to highlight different lenses. I have used this parable in at least three of my essays:
A young couple are having marital problems. The wife’s mother takes them to see the Rabbi. The wife speaks first and tells the Rabbi what’s going on and her complaints. The Rabbi says, “You’re right.” Husband says, “but wait you didn’t hear me yet.” Husband tells his side of things, and the Rabbi says, “You’re right.” Then the wife’s mother exclaims, “Wait, you said they’re both right, how can this be,” and the Rabbi says, “You’re right!”
The first time was in this fun and full of tangents and synchronicities https://medium.com/channspirations/the-serenity-prayer-df758d99c956 wiith the subtitle "repurposed for stoicism" (I rewrote the prayer to deal with the three aspects of willpower). Another time was in this essay calling for moderation, https://medium.com/illumination-curated/can-we-please-all-find-the-space-within-which-to-breathe-the-same-air-and-agree-not-to-agree-6b6b2c8077ec and quoting David Brooks: "Moderation is not an ideology; it is a way of being. It stands for humility of the head and ardor in the heart. When you listen to your neighbor, you see how many perspectives there are and you’re intellectually humble in the face of that pluralism. When you listen to your neighbor, you see that deep down we’re the same and you hunger to deepen that connection;" and most recently in my https://medium.com/@marcus17043/my-takeaways-from-news-that-alec-baldwin-charged-with-involuntary-manslaughter-4381d31637 with the subtitle "Cause of death does not mean that one caused death; a version of events may be factually incorrect but still be true"
