Dear Fellow Traveler,
Some people love the holidays; others dread them.
For some, one of the challenges is connecting cordially with family. It is common for casual conversations on politics, religion, or international affairs to escalate into heated debates.
These situations can be difficult to navigate for everyone. Even the Roman emperor Marcus Aurelius experienced the challenges of dealing with others. In his Meditations (or Notes to Himself), he wrote,
At the start of the day, tell yourself: I shall meet people who are officious, ungrateful, abusive, treacherous, … . But I have seen goodness and badness for what they are, and I know that what is good is what is morally right, and what is bad is what is morally wrong; and I’ve seen the true nature of the wrongdoer himself and know that he’s related to me—not in the sense that we share blood and seed, but by virtue of the fact that we both partake of the same intelligence, and so of a portion of the divine. […]
What is it about disagreements with family that cause so much strife? The late spiritual teacher Ram Dass used to jokingly say, “If you think you are enlightened, go and spend a week with your family.”
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