As a rule, I don’t answer incoming calls from people I don’t know.
If I give someone my cell phone number, I usually get that person’s number, too. But I’ve had my same cell number for ages, and I’ve “lived” in four different states and at about ten different addresses since I got this number, so every now and then, I get an incoming call from someone I don’t know. But today, I got a call from a surprising unknown caller:
I got a call from “The United States.”
That’s all that popped up on my caller ID when my phone started ringing. That’s a pretty big caller — the whole United States? Calling my cell phone? But because it’s my rule, I didn’t answer the call. Plus, I figured if it was a call I needed to know about, Uncle Sam would leave me a message. Right? But he didn’t.
However, the irony of that call wasn’t lost on me.
You see, only hours before I was on the phone with a very good friend of mine, and we were talking about how things are going in our country. We were each expressing our thoughts about how complicated it is to be passionate about an issue these days because we both start feeling overwhelmed by how most of the issues can divide us, and how noisy the fights can get. Every single hotbed issue we talked about is actually pretty nuanced, and when you start to study the facts for yourself, you can really see that most issues are so much more than just a two-sided debate. And then, just a matter of hours later, The United States was calling me!
Was this my one chance to tell Uncle Sam what’s on my mind? And was he calling because he wanted to listen to my point of view?
Probably not. But still. As a journalism major with a strong passion for the Bill of Rights, and the freedom of speech it guarantees, I feel like people know how to talk, but maybe we don’t know how to listen to each other very well anymore. I realize that sentence makes me sound like a silly little girl, and maybe deep down, I am! But when I think about adding my voice to the other voices all around me, part of me hesitates to say too much because I’m nervous I’ll be talked over, and…I’m really not sure who is listening to me anyway.
This blog hasn’t even been up for six weeks yet, so I’m quite certain I could say whatever I want to say without ruffling any feathers! But all of the life experiences I’ve had in the past decade have made me want to organize my thoughts carefully…and respectfully, I suppose. I want to fully understand the issues and to look at things from multiple angles before I step into the mix. I want to study the “exception” and the “rule” in a given topic, and lead with clarity.
I fully acknowledge that there will never be one answer or one solution that satisfies all people, or literally solves the problems in this world. To be frank, I think that’s what makes stepping into heated conversations so heavy for me… I’m a solution-oriented girl, but the complexities of this world make it tricky to find said solution, but I still find a hope rising up in me that I should at least get involved… I want to at least try.
But I’m just coming out of a dark season of introspection which has made me feel like if I’m going to say something, then what I say needs to be important and useful for building up others. And the bottom line is, saying something well is more important to me than saying something often…or, something that I haven’t carefully and completely considered.
Maybe “The United States” will try my number again tomorrow. I probably won’t answer. But I think I’m at least getting closer these days to knowing what I want to say if I did…
