Lazy Sunday # 172: Interpretation

I'm gonna try not to take a side here. But I probably will…

After Canada's Federal election last month, there was a lot of whining from the losing parties. That's to be expected. Losing hurts. It's never pleasant to discover that a lot of your friends and neighbors don't share your particular beliefs and values, especially those which you hold passionately.

That's life. It takes all kinds to make a world. And sometimes a lot of us think "otherwise" or even "wrong".

We all interpret the passing scene differently, read into it based on our own experiences and seldom make our choices with all the facts we should have in front of us.

People! They're just not perfect. And they'll never be as perfect as you are.

But what has struck me most about the reaction is the ongoing unwillingness to realize that something has changed and that maybe something needs to be addressed in your own approach if you want to counter it.

I really don't have a problem with the young woman who put her job as a Senate Page on the line to make her personal statement during Thursday's Speech from the Throne. What she did took a lot of courage and commitment. She knew the potential price and she was willing to pay it.

Maybe her statement of hoping to spark an "Arab Spring" in this country was a little naive. But luckily she lives in a place where nobody took her off for a "Virginity Test" after she'd made her stand.

Overall, my problem isn't with her.

Moments after she was escorted from the Senate chamber, she became a hero among some in the social media. The same people who had for weeks decried Prime Minister Stephen Harper's "contempt of Parliament" were now more than happy to embrace someone who had exhibited similar contempt.

Perhaps not on the same scale or with the potential ramifications. But if you want to wrap yourself in a particular sanctimony, maybe you need to apply it to everybody and not just the folks you don't really like.

Moments after the above moment of protest, Opposition leader Jack Layton pinched his face and said the new government had clearly not taken his views under advisement in constructing the Parliamentary agenda.

Weeks after the election, he still seemed unaware that most of the country had rejected his personal version of the future.

Yeah, 60% of the country didn't vote for Mr. Harper, Jack. But 75% of them didn't vote for you. And 80% didn't get onboard with the other losing party's vision.

Maybe that means everybody needs to look in a mirror and figure out what they're doing wrong. Meanwhile, somebody has to govern on the platform that got them placed in the position of power.

You don't defeat an enemy by whining or insisting you have right on your side. You do it by getting to know them, discovering their weaknesses and using that knowledge to your advantage.

Winning is all a matter of interpretation -- as the last line of this week's video makes abundantly clear.

Think about what that message means to your own world view. And Enjoy your Sunday.