You know how people talk to each other? And you know how people talk to each other and disagree with each other on that topic? And you know how people continue to get more and more "passionate" as they try to prove themselves correct? And you know how no ground is gained for either, and the only accomplished thing is resentment? Wellll, this isn't one of those instances.
I think any intelligent person can, at any time, change their mind. I think you are not intelligent unless you are capable of a change of heart. F. Scott Fitzy said the true measure of intelligence is holding two opposing ideas in your mind simultaneously while retaining function (paraphrase), so if you are in your 20's and have never changed your mind on anything, you're dumb. My digression aside, I remember the first time I changed my mind in an instant. I thought it was great, and that I understood the purpose of research for the first time.
I was recently talking to a girl I have mentioned a lot, Virginia. She was the victim of a pretty awful rape when she was in her late teens. I know that all rape is awful, but hers was at the hands of a stranger, behind her place of employment, he was a clinical psychotic and paranoid schizophrenic, and he used a knife to force her to have sex with him. She had only kissed males up to this point, and was only saved when a local businessmen heard her screams, and assailed the man with the claw side of a hammer, covering her in his blood.
Up to that conversation, I viewed rape differently than I do now. Without sounding offensive, I did not see rape as more heinous than assault or battery. I am embarrassed to say that. I thought I viewed it as heinous, but it wasn't until I felt and saw the change in my heart, that I really was aware of how I had felt. Listening to her describe what happened, free of major details, just the basics, just broke my heart. It was like, until I knew someone who had been raped, who I cared so much about, I was unable to see the horror. Like I said, it really embarrasses me to admit that I felt like i did. She again displayed an extraordinary amount of poise and strength while telling me about it. She is 100 times the woman most females I talk to are. For someone who has experienced so much, she stands strong and still willing to be vulnerable. No one has an excuse, myself included, to complain after knowing her.
Next time you talk to someone, someone who has a different life than you, someone who has known something different than you, someone who isn't you, listen to them. Keep your heart open to them, keep your mind receptive to the change you could know with them, because you don't really know how much you can change or how much you want to change, until you do.
