Flip Flop

When I was a little girl, I wore flip-flops all summer long. I realize that some people still refer to flip-flops as thongs and they shouldn’t, for so many reasons. Anyway, I used to name my flip-flops. The left one was Flip and the right one was Flop. My mother would ask me, “Where are Flip and Flop?” and I would find them and slip them on my feet. I still love flip-flops and now as a grown up lady, I buy flip-flops in all different colors and some with higher heels. I have my dress flip-flops and my everyday ones. I especially love the pair that have crystals along the top–pretty! Love the flip-flops and frankly, I don’t trust a person who doesn’t (unless of course you have some weird foot or toe problem.)

I thought it was funny when a bit ago when President Obama came out in support for marriage equality that people called him a flip-flopper. What does marriage equality have to do with footwear? Oh, then I realized that they meant that he flip-flopped on the issue, meaning he changed his mind about what he believed. And he’s being criticized for this? Don’t people change their mind about what they believe all the time? Isn’t that a positive thing? If we stick with what we believe our entire lives, how are we supposed to grow and change? Isn’t that the purpose of life? To evolve in our thought, mind and heart?

He also said that some of his change of heart and change of mind came from speaking to his children.

You know, Malia and Sasha, they have friends whose parents are same-sex couples. There have been times where Michelle and I have been sitting around the dinner table and we’re talking about their friends and their parents and Malia and Sasha, it wouldn’t dawn on them that somehow their friends’ parents would be treated differently. It doesn’t make sense to them and frankly, that’s the kind of thing that prompts a change in perspective.

Change in perspective.

That is the key point here. He had a change in perspective.

Everything in our lives is about perception and perspective. Everything. Think I’m wrong? I’m not. There are very few issues that don’t come down to perspective and perspective changes all of the time. The entire evolution of our country has been based on a change of perspective.

Slavery Good
Slavery Bad

Segregation Good
Segregation Bad

Equal Rights Bad
Equal Rights Good

Eight Hour Work Week Day Bad
Eight Hour Work Week Day Good

Prohibition Bad
Prohibition Good
Prohibition Bad Again

Child Labor Laws Bad
Child Labor Laws Good

Beating Children Good
Beating Children Bad

Beating Wives Good
Beating Wives Bad

Birth Control Bad
Birth Control Good
Birth Control Bad Again According to Wackos

Short Dresses Bad
Short Dresses Good
Short Dresses Bad Again
Short Dresses Good Again
Really, Really Short Dresses? Jury’s Out.

Those are some examples of the bigger changes in perspective that we, collectively as a country have experienced over the past several decades.Personally, we have a change in perspective about people, things and issues all the time. You once absolutely loved that pastel floral couch that you bought in 1989 and now you laugh at yourself for even buying it. My hair in the 1980′s? What the hell? Ex Boyfriends/Girlfriends/Spouses? Major change in perspective. Those are simple things that we do every single day.

I used to consider myself a very spiritual person who spent many, many years trying to figure out God and religion. I studied, became immersed in several different churches over the years from the Catholic church to the Episcopal to the Lutheran, to the non-denominational to New Thought and finally to The United Church of Christ. Then I went to college and a whole lot of things opened up in my mind, one being that I no longer believed in God. I once considered myself a Christian and now I consider myself an Agnostic. Does that make me a flip-flopper? No. I had a change of perspective. I evolved, grew and changed.

I once was heterosexual and now I’m really, really not. Flip-flopper? Hell, if I had remained heterosexual I would have been a liar. Which is worse? Changing one’s mind or lying?

I used to eat all animal products, then I quite eating beef, then I started eating beef again, and now I don’t eat meat at all. Flip-flopper? No, I learned a few things that changed my perspective about eating animals.

Don’t we want a president, hell, don’t we want a society that is open to new ideas and willing to consider new information in order to make intelligent, rational and reasonable decisions? Do people have any idea how many fucked up decisions that past presidents have made that we now look at and say, “What the hell were they thinking?” Probably a million.

I’m proud of my president and I hope that all of those people who think it’s a negative thing that he changed his mind about something as important as equality for all citizens would stop and consider how much differently they think and how different of a people they are now, compared to five, ten, twenty or thirty years ago. You wouldn’t want to be that person because you’re probably much better now.

Yes we can.