Two sides to everything

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It seems to be more true than at any time before; there are two sides to everything. Often in the most literal sense possible.

This happens with our most personal decisions, it can be seen in work situations ~ whether ‘work’ means a job or a family doesn’t really matter ~ in politics… But perhaps it is most visible on social networking platforms where people take pretty much any opportunity they get to express their opinions, only to make both sides to the issue painfully obvious.

it wasn’t all that long ago when things were seen in all their nuances. Yes, they did have two sides, but in between those two polarities were any number of lines and levels, viewpoints and perspectives that were neither one, nor the other ‘side’ to the issue.
In a sense it made it easier to express our opinions; especially when out opinion could not be categorized as one or the other. It also invited us to keep making up our own mind, follow our own line of thought, and reach our own conclusions at the end of the line.

Now, there seems to be just the choice between one or the other.
No need to look at a multitude of possibilities, or spend time and effort to think things through for ourselves.
Yet, at the same time, it makes us feel more superficial. More two dimensional. And at times a bit more ‘outside of reality’. Because reality, whichever way you look at it, has any number of facets, levels, even sides if you wish; and it doesn’t let itself be forced into a very two-dimensional ‘one or the other’. And then, at the same time it does have two sides to it…

And that is where the conundrum lies.
Reality has two sides to it, and yet it has a multitude of facets…

As long as we only permit ourselves to choose one or the other, we may forget to observe what really is there in all of its nuances and facets. On the other hand, when we just allow ourselves to think it through and only focus on all of its nuances, we may miss the overview where we could have clearly seen those two sides.

Yes, we need all of it, the many facets as well as the two sides.
The only thing we don’t necessarily need is when those two sides to a situation, a topic, an issue or an event are brought to the surface, to draw our lines in the sand and to sound our battle cries…

That’s just not what it is about.
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