I checked out of the library the book above. This is the book to read if you care about what’s going on and want to aid in changing things.

The first habit to adopt is to see what goes on from the other person’s point of view. It’s called a Point of View for a reason. Everyone’s lived experience impacts how each of us thinks about life, the world, and people.

Scapegoating the readers of books is not the way to end injustice. Authors have been fixated on changing the behavior they assume the reader has when those media darlings haven’t met you.

One of their cardinal sins is hiring a life coach as if wanting to improve yourself is an injustice.

In real life as well as between the pages of books there’s a better alternative to stereotyping people:

Each of us should tell our unvarnished stories. Storytelling is the way to kindle empathy and to motivate readers to act or to change their mind.

In this season when the holiday card greeting Peace on Earth appears to be a cosmic joke I persist in having hope. I remain an optimist.

There’s work that each of us can do to aid in healing. It starts when we choose recovery and reconciliation instead of waging a war with people we view as our enemies.

Positive change IS happening in corners of society in America under the radar of the people who have been given a media platform to spread hateful and hurtful rhetoric.

We don’t have to buy what they’re selling us this season. They can attack us sight unseen when the truth is hiding in plain sight: change is going on.

Let’s not click on the bait or repost bitter barbed-wire attacks.

Love is All Colors just like Love is All Sizes. And Love is Love however it appears. People are falling in love with each other. Individuals are acting as Advocates. Fathers are raising their kids to have manners and compassion.

These tiny acts of justice are going on all around us.

Now more than ever seeing each other and recognizing each other is the way to go.

I’ll end here with what a famous Russian art instructor told me when I took his life painting class. He told me: “Paint what you see not what you know.”

Let’s take five minutes to share our stories with each other. To show who we are and what we stand for. Let’s take a stand against the agents of acrimony who keep us divided.