Confessions of a Human Nerve Ending

Situation 1: I was standing in line at Whole Foods with my food lined up behind me on the conveyor belt.   A young black man got in line behind me and put his small handful of groceries behind mine.   I noticed that he didn’t use the divider between his groceries and mine, and I didn’t say anything.   Surely the clerk would notice?                 A few minutes later, the clerk had gotten to the end of my groceries and looked down at his.   “Is this yours?” she asked me.                 I shook my head and then looked back at him.   Snarkily, I said, “Almost got me to pay for your food.   Almost.”                 He laughed; I laughed; the clerk laughed.           ...

                    A while back, I was reading an old friend’s Facebook (FB) post about how both political sides are corrupt and another old friend commented, “I'm going to disagree with you on that point. True people on the Right listen to the other side without putting the other side down and point to facts...The difficulty I have is that the left likes to use emotion and opinion for the disagreement and when you confront them on where they got their information it's MSN.”                 I responded, “…your take is exactly what I experience in reverse, and when you ask them where they got their facts they'll point to Fox, which I don't think is reliable sourcing.    Of course, social media has made it easier to get caught up in bubbles and tribalism and leads to only really hearing opinions that support our pre-existing opinions.   I think...