It's ok to disagree.

I'm going to link up with Elizabeth today for her who are you series. It's an open topic and I didn't think I would blog today until I was once again confronted with a personality trait of mine that is apparently very different.

It doesn't bother me to disagree with people.

I'm not argumentative or combative. I am content to completely disagree with someone and leave it at that. I don't feel the need to persuade people to agree with me, and I don't necessarily need to completely understand why others don't agree with my point of view.

Don't get me wrong, I enjoy meaningful conversation and I'm happy to hear other people's points of view. When I don't agree though, I'm not going to spend all day trying to dissect their reasoning.

This drives J crazy sometimes. We agree on all the issues that matter to us, but there are a lot of social and political issues we don't necessarily agree on. I'm content with that. I believe we all have a right to our opinions, and we shouldn't ever feel pressured to change what we think just to make someone else happy.

J has, in the past, confused my disagreement with judgement. He feels like if I can't see an issue from his viewpoint then I must think that he is narrow-minded or arrogant.

Not true. At all. I just don't agree with him.

My boss and I disagree on something right now too. Very simply she wrote something down that I did not. I do not think that it is correct but she is my boss so I accepted it. That doesn't satisfy her though, she wants me to agree and believe that she is right. Why? What difference does it make?

Popular example of people feeling that its necessary to agree on everything? The Chic-fil-A Ordeal.

I don't agree with the opinions of the CEO.

I do believe that he has a right to his opinion.

I also believe that every individual has a right to make decisions about where they do business without feeling pressure from friends or family to 'take a stand'.
Eating Chic-fil-A doesn't mean you hate gay people. It means you like their chicken.

Can you imagine if we dissected the beliefs of every CEO in America or investigated the charities/organizations they all supported?

We could probably find reasons to grow all of our own food, make all of our own clothes, and ride bicycles to work. (Except there would still be textile manufacturers and bicycle companies to worry about. Maybe we'd just go naked and stay at home?)

So basically I'm content to disagree with Mr. Cathy and go on about my life as if what he thinks doesn't affect me. Because guess what? It doesn't. 

It also doesn't affect any of my friends who are in loving relationships with partners of the same sex. Their lives are the same today as they were a few weeks ago before this made the news, with the exception that everyone they know now wants to hear their opinion on the matter.

Who am I? 

I'm a girl that you can disagree with and still be friends with.

Check out Elizabeth's Blog and Link-up!