One of the first lessons I learned in life came from parents/elders: There’s give and take in everything.

I thought this was how “getting along” happened in society. There’s this invisible continuum between what you or, larger scale, your group wants and what a countervailing person/people or that other group wants. Life doesn’t operate smoothly in a ‘heads I win tails I lose’ binary world, so find the handshake place on the continuum and move on with life.

I’m starting to wonder if the bit of advice I learned early on (there’s give and take in everything) has gone the way of the dinosaur. Replacing it as advice seems to be the polar opposite: It’s my way or the highway. Take it or leave it because there’s no budging and no compromising.

What Gives? I ask myself this rhetorical question repeatedly and don’t like the in-my-mind answer. Virtually everything is presented in black-and-white terms, and the opposite (countervailing) view is tantamount to stupidity. Pick a side and dig your heels in.

How about, alternatively, we view life as if on a TRIANGLE. Nest yourself on that horizontal line/bar as the other two bars duke it out. Problem is that horizontal bar nesting place (on the TRIANGLE) feels lonelier by the year....what gives?