Everything in Moderation?!

I have previously written about the importance of we [humans] being aware of doing things in a moderate way. Now that doesn’t mean much unless it is defined and it’s meaning clarified. One way that I have thought about this idea of moderation recently relates to what seems to be a problem in that important issues are frequently polarized by the two opposing sides taking positions that offer no room for compromise and portray the other view as being completely wrong. This seems to have occurred with global warming, abortion, family values and poverty. I have recently blogged about the negative impact of presenting information in an alarming way as people can start to feel overwhelmed and then protect themselves from this stress by not believing the information or denying it is real. I believe that presenting information or one’s position on something in a way that is alarming is like not using moderation. The same goes for polarizing positions with each side not using moderation.

This moderation theme might seem confusing or not really fiting the situation. People frequently seem to feel that they need to shock people so that they get their attention and show them how serious the problem is. However, I believe that this ends up making it very hard for anyone to keep listening to the discussion about the problem and often even if they are able to listen, they are overwhelmed enough that they feel numb and are not able to hear anything about ways to help reduce or solve the problem. This ends up causing people to feel separated from others. This occurs either by the numbing experience that we use to protect ourselves from being overwhelmed or by identifying with the polarized postion where their opinion is the only right one.

It seems to me that moderation might mean that we approach issues in a way that is open to other views and opinions and is focused on ways to help vs pointing out the magnitude of the problem. As humans, like it or not, we are in this together. It would seem best to come up with solutions that give all of us the opportunity to work together to understand and help reduce or solve the problems.

Recently, I was talking with a young person studying herpetology [study of reptiles and amphibians]. She related the large number of salamander species in North Carolina and also the risk to these species related to environmental changes [yes, global warming]. She was happy that a number of these species are quite adaptable to changing environments and she was happy that people were willing to make changes to help these salamanders. She told me that when they find species at risk due to what land owners are doing, they will talk to the land owner and share their concerns and also share suggestions of what can be done to protect the salamanders. She told me that almost all the time, the landowner will show concern and be willing to make changes to protect the salamanders. She used to feel cynical about this and realized that she was judging the landowners unfairly and that she was wrong about them.

So, together we can make a difference and if we treat each other with respect and listen to one another then maybe the sky [universe?] is still the only limit to what we can achieve.