Yesterday during a conversation I realized that I've reached a point where I have no patience left for people who fail to see that everything is complicated. I am sick of hearing people's opinions about things that try to give a reason for something as one single thing that can easily be changed. I am tired of people who think they're right and everyone else is wrong and don't get why the rest don't see it their way as they hold some golden piece of information that the unenlightened do not know.
The truth is, that most things in life are very complicated and so few things can be changed by doing one thing differently, let alone by making an easy change. Life is not that simple. If it was, everyone would open their minds to make the easy small change and then every problem would be solved and we'd all be living in a utopia.
We're not in Utopia.
And the pathetic fact is that easy small changes often fail to affect anything very much. I wish they could!
I can and will choose to remain polite in such conversations. The second I can change the topic, I will, if my initial attempt to bring the complexity to light fails to work due to closed-mindedness or whatever else the issue is. (I am being kind to not list a few more reasons that the person would be closed minded.) However I will not seek to take our relationship more in depth such as moving it from acquaintence to friend. No matter how much I'd like more deep friendships in my new place of residence I don't need people in my life who are going to stress me out with stupid talk or ones who have values I do not share such as they are prejudiced or racist.
I think I've solidly hit middle age as my perspective on life has been shifting in the last couple of years. I no longer feel that my lifetime is going to be so long that I can't imagine what it will be like. I have a pretty good idea of how it probably will pan out including a few different scenarios should a few different major things happen.
I have the feeling that really, there will never be enough time to do everything I want and to see everything I want to see. Life is limited and I want to make good choice about how I spend my time. I have enough stress in my life without adding to it by willingly having stupid conversations with stupid ideas that only add up to a pile of drivel at the end or worse, give me stress which corrupts the rest of my day goes on and on to ruin my week.