During the past years, and without really wanting to do so, I’ve developed a deep understanding of what it’s like to live with constant physical pain. This understanding has nothing to do with the science behind pain, it’s about the experience of living with pain as a constant companion. I decided a long time ago that it was in my own best interests to learn what I could from pain that might make my life, and perhaps the lives of others, a bit easier.

Does 2025 seem to you to contain more uncertainty than any year that came before? The general sentiment I hear expressed seems to confirm that many of us feel this way. But that sentiment ignores several incontrovertible truths.

In the first part of this blog, I talked about how we have come to believe if someone has beliefs that don’t align with our own, they must be a bad person.

“This is part one of a two-part blog.

Here we are several days after the most bruising Presidential election in my lifetime, and somehow, we’re all still here. And somehow, we have to find a way to live in the same country with people whose beliefs on almost every issue clash with our own.”