Day 220 - real debates

What I love about my family dinners is that they are usually open ended debates. I love the fact that although we're all stubborn as hell, we'll still hear and voice a variety of opinions, and not get offended. I find that in today's society people take debate too personally. They feel like voicing their opinion on a subject puts them in a position to be scruitinzed. And in most cases this is true. I find this a lot, especially in North America. Your opinion on any giving subject immediately proifiles you as a certain person. All opinions are derivitives of some extrememly personal part of yourself, and therefore if rebuted should be taken as an offence. This to me is complete nonsense. Opinions change, and are only minor parts of ourselves. And can only really be used to profile someone when they're causing action. You can't judge a person by what he or she says on a subject, you could start to form an opnion, but by no means categorize someone. And I find people way to defensive, especially in debate. It's more of a battle of who's opinion is better, subsequentally who's better. If you're arguing a point, then sure, go for it, fight and argue away. But I really don't find that's the case most of the times. Debates are so loaded, they're just a way for people to try to prove themselves, but that's not the point. The point to a debate, is to prove a point. That isn't necessarily a direct extention of your existence. I realised this today while in a room full of highly opiniontated stubborn people sat at a dining table, and discussed completely oposing opinions without anyone getting remotely offended. And it's moments like these that I realise how much of our insecurities are embeded in our behavior. Maybe we all could potentially learn from eachother if life was as easy as a big fat Greek Christmas dinner.