I am not an anti vaccer, this is because as a young child to be kept alive I received quite a lot of vaccines and accepted that you had to take things that you may not like but were in the end good for you. Another term I heard recently regarding this area was Pro-choice which I thought related to the abortion movement, or it did in the seventies.

I have seen people posting via social media utter nonsense, that horse medicine is better than vaccines, that COVID is an international plot and the purpose of the vaccine is to put a microchip in you. If someone started a conversation about these subjects I would have to request that they stop as I am far too logical to listen to it.

What upsets me is that in these hard times I have heard of cases where people have written off friendships because we agree to disagree. Nobody gets through life without losing someone they love, someone they need, or something they thought was meant to be. Here are some lessons we have learnt over these painful times:

1. You are not what happened to you in the past.
2. Focus on what you have, not on what you don’t.
3. Struggling with problems is a natural way of growing.
4. It’s OK to fall apart for a little while.
5. Life is fragile, sudden, and shorter than it often seems.
6. Emotionally separate yourself from your problems.
7. Don’t make a problem bigger than it is.
8. View every challenge as an educational assignment.
9. Things change, but the sun always rises the next day.
10. Giving up and moving on are two different things.
11. Perfect relationships don’t exist.
12. You must love yourself too.
13. Don’t let others make decisions for you.
14. Resentment hurts them, not you.
15. Consciously nurture your inner hope.
16. It’s better to be hurt by the truth than comforted by a lie.
17. Not getting what you want can be a blessing.
18. Laughter is the best medicine for stress.
19. Worrying is literally a waste of energy.
20. Even when it’s hard to move, take small steps forward.
21. You are better off without some people you thought you needed.
22. You are only competing against yourself.
23. Life is not easy.
24. Your future is unwritten.
25. You are not trapped, you just need to relearn a few things.
26. Everything in life is two-sided.
27. You always have a choice.
28. Let others in when you are in a dark place.
29. If you ask negative questions , you will get negative answers.
30. The end is a new beginning.

This is not the first time that disagreements like this have happened over time, I’m sure there are quotes over the decades that discussed this dilemma, lets have a look:

1. I is not worth going over the limit if you know their opinion is different to yours.

The Third POTUS, Thomas may be where the saying don’t talk about religion or politics came from: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k0r1AJMK79g

3. Mahatma used this principle to free a country.

4. We take it that friendly disagreement is progressing our friendships: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jpqV3dzYOgk

5. Remember those school debates, you had to debate what you didn’t agree with at times.

6. Talking about the dreaded workplace disagreements: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x34icYC8zA0

7. One of my favourite actors with a very wise statement.

8. Repeat after me……..: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JiVb8xizRXU

9. This one’s a smack in the face.

10. The stability get checked at the eye of the storm: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j5vHWJhVvI4

11. Eugenia is an inspirational writer and poet. I believe this quote relates to her second book of poetry “Take a step right now towards your dreams“.

12. This is what I hope happens as COVID disappears into the distance: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-Py8OWAMkns

13. This profound piece of wisdom comes from an English cricketer if you believe Wikipedia.

14.There is a word for someone who is never wrong – Its a narcissist: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L3wKzyIN1yk

15.And for our final lesson, we look at the action versus the practice.

So from writing this, I have come to the solution that we can disagree to disagree but we do not need to give up our friendships.

Today’s playlist has two of my favourite songs on it, I will let you guess which one’s. We begin with 2 pop legends:John Legend and Shakira. Three lesser known groups and artists follow: Erasure, Prince Mpfarutsa and Bliss and Eso. The penultimate track is Carrie Underwood and we finish with Rag and Bone Man: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLJlQ3F9bKYrt9dG5wUc1bJ9E1_DkZkEow

COVID has tested my ethos of Love and Respect for All, Everybody Included, but I have set up two Facebook groups to help with the spread of it: Interculturalism – https://www.facebook.com/groups/183421768519278 and Thriving People – People who wish to make a difference to Humanity: https://www.facebook.com/groups/1126100227764949. Whereever you are in the world reading this, I invite you to join our merry bands of travelers.

Until we net again, my dear friends.