Day 16: I see the moon and the moon sees me

Here's a photo I took last night of the moon surrounded by the pink of a sunset. Of course I can't really do it justice, but the photo is as true to the moment as I can get with the camera on my phone. It looks like what I saw.

I cropped out some noise around the edges in Photoshop, and after I did that I decided to see what Photoshop would do to this photo to make it look better. I hit all the auto-adjust features, and this is how my photo was improved.

Big difference, and nothing like what I saw and wanted to capture. It's the same moon and clouds, but it's not really the truth.

A lot of times when people talk about political issues and politicians, it reminds me of these two photos. They're talking about the same issues, but they're twisting the color and the tone just enough that it's no longer the truth. Same situation and people. Same information. But not exactly the truth.

Unfortunately, we don't get Photoshop's "step backward" function to use with other people so they see things our way. The right way. My way. OK, I'm sure sometimes people think my views are just as distorted. They're wrong, OC.

But often it's worse. It's not even obvious we're seeing the same sky. They're missing the point entirely or leaving out the parts that don't fit their beliefs.

And sometimes, I don't even know what the fuck they're seeing. No matter how much light is shone on a situation or a person, they refuse to see anything but the dark.

It's frustrating. When it comes to politics, especially on Facebook, I've set a policy for myself. No matter how stupid and misguided I think someone's opinion is, especially as it concerns the candidates for the November election, I'm not going to try to persuade them to see things my way, even though it's clear to me that my way is the best way. And if I post something about a candidate and someone comes in with "She's a dumb bitch and  I heard on Fox News that she has 100 cats but only 3 litter boxes, and I hate her, so I'm going to vote for someone you've never heard of and you should too, because I feel like breaking some shit and so should you and if you don't, you're a stupidhead motherfucker and you deserve to be Trumped in the ass ...." I'm not going to respond. However, I might delete the comment, because my Facebook wall is like my living room. If someone's going to hang out there and talk, I'm going to insist they maintain a level of civility that's determined solely by how much shit I've put up with that day, and by how full my vitriol tank has already been filled. I realize people are angry, but the hate and spite and refusal to change when new information becomes available are just too much. It's not productive.

And yet, I don't want to lose friends over this, because no matter what happens, we're going to need our friends and families to get through whatever comes next. I sometimes feel like I'm in a Stephen King novel and the suspense is building and shit is going to get so crazy we won't even recognize our world in a decade. We really do need to work together instead of building factions that include only the people who agree with everything we believe.

I'm not sure how we're going to do it. Some days, I'm not sure we're going to survive. I do know we have to be careful who we put in that big White House, because that person is going to have a finger on the trigger of some very big guns.