Maybe I'm wrong but...

It all comes down to kindness. I have to say, that word makes me cringe. Its overuse by Oprah and bumperstickers has made it a do-gooder's cliche that just annoys me. And I'm quite aware of the irony of wanting to punch someone in the face when they say it.
The need to be right is so destructive. We spend so much of our younger days establishing identities and finding our voices, searching for validation by arguing our points of view until everyone agrees. And we just know that we are right. But when it becomes a mentality instead of growing pains it's just damaging.
Well, I'm old and I'm over it. I'm finally done with right. And I'm moving on to kindness. Today (and over the past couple of weeks), I've been on the wrong end of someone forcing their version of right on me, and I don't want to be pulled into their cut-and-dry world. I just want to laugh with them about it, and wish them the best. I admire courage of conviction, and, if you know me, you know I have my opinions and soapboxes. But it's getting ugly out there and, at the end of the day, if you weren't passing along some kindness instead of cramming your right in someone's psyche, you weren't helping it get prettier.
So I'll be happy to have a friendly debate over health care or whether Katy Perry sucks or not (she kind of does), but I'll let you have the win. And I'm going to hug you when we're done.