Shadowing Pádraig Ó Tuama: The Political is Personal
Everything political is personal for someone. Politics, at its etymological root, has to do with how we organize our lives and affairs with the people we live among. And how we live among each other affects us all in personal ways.
Shadowing Pádraig Ó Tuama: The Subjectivity of Reasonableness
“Most people do what seems reasonable to them at the time, most of the time …
It’s not that everyone all the time is being reasonable. That’s obviously not true. It’s that most people are probably doing what they consider reasonable. And even that needs nuancing: “most of the time.” Sometimes, people act in ways that even they can acknowledge are unreasonable. Most of the time, however, it’s likely helpful to assume people behave in ways that make sense to them.”
Shadowing Pádraig Ó Tuama: Understanding is Not Complicity
Being able to understand is not the same as justifying, or agreeing with, or supporting. It’s simply being able to get your head around why and how that person, in their context with their story and their pain and their experiences and their relationships and their wiring, might come to think and act as they do. In the end, this is all about empathy.
The Story We’re All Yearning to Tell
I think part of what this reveals is that we are all moving through life yearning to be true, authentic, and vulnerable with each other. We want desperately to show our true selves to each other. To have our pain and our pride, our vulnerability and our victories, seen and heard—even by total strangers. We have stories we don’t want to keep inside.
![Yesterday, on my 30th birthday, my mom showed me this note she’s kept since I was in 4th grade. I had been playing on the elementary football team all summer but finally had enough. Here’s what I wrote it my parents to let them know. Amazing how you can change so much over the years, and also not change at all. [letter reads: Dear Mom and Dad,
I have made a choice. My reasons: I don’t want to hurt anyone. I don’t want to get hurt, I’ve already had 7 minor injurys. I don’t want to risk it, though I like to run I don’t like to run over, and I don’t like the coach yelling. So I have made my final choice. I QUIT.
P.S. Don’t talk to me about it unless you have to.]](https://scontent.cdninstagram.com/vp/759040878af1fcfe2aa73f23a60bc7ce/5D3FC3D5/t51.2885-15/sh0.08/e35/p640x640/56510995_2285070131811385_7311739717188716096_n.jpg?_nc_ht=scontent.cdninstagram.com "Yesterday, on my 30th birthday, my mom showed me this note she’s kept since I was in 4th grade. I had been playing on the elementary football team all summer but finally had enough. Here’s what I wrote it my parents to let them know. Amazing how you can change so much over the years, and also not change at all. [letter reads: Dear Mom and Dad,
I have made a choice. My reasons: I don’t want to hurt anyone. I don’t want to get hurt, I’ve already had 7 minor injurys. I don’t want to risk it, though I like to run I don’t like to run over, and I don’t like the coach yelling. So I have made my final choice. I QUIT.
P.S. Don’t talk to me about it unless you have to.]")
