Absolute Compromise

I grow weary of stridency, even my own.
I tire of fanatical certainty and steadfast principles based on emotion more than intellect.

Today, there is a poisonous passion sweeping the land that forbids centrist thinking and treats it as blasphemy.

I am tired of passion, even my own.
I grow weary of charges of blasphemy and political compromise.

We are afraid of one another, and fear breeds contempt, and contempt breeds hatred, and hatred breeds violence.

I am afraid of violence bred of hatred.
I hate to see contempt emerge from fear.

We're wrong, every one of us, whose reactions to another's certainty and principles are emotional outbursts unleavened by intellect.

Sometimes, compromise is good, even when certainty is sacrificed. Sometimes, principles remain principles only when tested through compromise.

Principles untested by compromise are not principles.
They are dogma built on fables, untested by investigation.

The only absolutes are fueled by compromise.