Flip Flop or Growth?

Most days, the news headlines display a quote from one of our current political candidates and espouse how the person is contradicting themselves, a previous vote or an earlier position. The headline and the story is designed to arouse our sense of injustice and prove, beyond a shadow of a doubt, that Mr. or Ms. Candidate cannot be trusted and how they are very likely to *gasp* change their mind at some point.

Goodness, I hope so. I contend there are few of us, if any, who would maintain the same feelings about everything we've ever encountered for our entire lifetimes (think back to one or two boy- or girl- friends who seemed oh so perfect at the time). I, honestly, am embarrassed by some of the things I once thought to be steadfastly true. Fast food isn't so bad. Low-fat milk is the best choice. The FDA and USDA protect our food sources. And, trust me, there are more juicy ones on my list, as well...

I think the point of life is to learn and grow and adapt as we go along. Our information, maturity, environment and feelings change over time. There isn't anything wrong with this. From my humble perspective, this is called growth and is exactly what we are supposed to do in life.

I think we should celebrate our elected officials for changing their minds, for being open to new ideas and new thinking. I think instead of hiding from it, they should tell us why, what else they learned and what changed in them that made them change their minds. When did we become so sad that we consider growth and new ideas a flip flop?

Tragic.