It's certainly been a week, above and beyond the way events played out Tuesday evening into Wednesday morning, and the ensuing sense of anxiousness and despair. Tuesday evening, I watched a couple of friendships implode in real time, on social media, and I am sure that many more disintegrated similarly, beyond my personal circle. Some of my own are in tatters, perhaps irreparably. I've seen people's true colours and been repulsed. I've personally reached a point where I've lost a lot of respect and trust in people (generally as well as specifically), in the media, in what we presume to call the system, what we define as progress.

More than anything, however, I'm frustrated with myself. I tried to practice and even at times preach tolerance, in my tentative, squeaky voice, and yet I find myself feeling eminently intolerant at the moment. Intolerant of constant arguing. Intolerant of intractability. Intolerant of mockery and belittlement. Intolerant of propagation of half truths and misquotes. Intolerant of intolerance itself. I know that's both tautological and contradictory, but it's the vicious circle of the reality that we live and breathe at the moment, wherever we are on the planet.

The US election results were far less shocking, far less disappointing or traumatic if you will, than the acrimony at the personal, human level. That phenomenon may well be the true disaster of our time, because that's the base that everything else is built on.

Probably the most eloquent comment I saw all week came from someone half a world away, whose first language is not English. One of my friends teaches in China, and in a conversation on social media, several of his current and former students expressed their concerns about going to the States to study. As if right on cue, an Ugly American voice stepped in and accused these students of feeling entitled to an education in the West ''...we don't need anymore [sic] students who feel they are owed anything.'' The student's response included the simple phrase All people, regardless of where they come from, are one people. Yes, regardless of where they come from - geographically, culturally, racially, politically, ethnically, socially - we're all in this together, and all the hate in the world can't change that.

If you think this world is warped, look in the mirror, and you'll find both the cause and the cure.

“I have learned silence from the talkative, toleration from the intolerant, and kindness from the unkind; yet strange, I am ungrateful to these teachers.” 
― Kahlil Gibran