… I do not think it means what you think it means. (thank you Inigo Montoya).

I just read a story. A guy was sitting in a restaurant. At the next table some elderly gentleman was apparently speaking very loudly to his dining companion. The first gentleman was aghast because he was listening to the old man saying “the most disgusting, evil racist invective” he had heard. The first gentleman was so incensed he “was ready to jump over the booth and stab him in the eye with a fork.” While he didn’t do that, he did loudly state that he “should have requested seating in ‘no bigot'”, and the old man’s dining companion then steered the conversation in another direction.

While I cannot deny the old man’s intolerance of blacks and women, the first gentleman is also displaying great intolerance; in fact, the intolerance is so strong it aroused violent feelings within him.

The sad part is, I know the first gentleman and I believe he considers himself an open-minded progressive person. The fact he is upset at hearing someone speaking in racist tones denotes that he considers himself a tolerant and non-racist person. But it’s evident he still has his prejudices. The question is, is he aware of the log in his own eye?

If you are truly tolerant, then you are going to be tolerant. Period. That means you are going to deal with things you do not like or agree with, or could find totally revolting. THAT is toleration; dealing with things you already like, by definition, is not toleration. So if you’re going to call yourself tolerant, then you best behave that way, period. Or, be honest in your assessment and representation of yourself.

I make no bones about the fact that I’m not a totally tolerant person. I really don’t care what your skin color is, gender, race, religion, national origin, creed, hair style, clothing, if you have less than 10 fingers, the shape of your nose, your choice in music, whatever. I really don’t care.  Yeah I may not like all of it, but so what? That’s your life, you go live it. What I will not tolerate is bullshit. I don’t like bullshit, I don’t like to be bullshitted, I don’t dole out bullshit. I do not tolerate assholes. I do not tolerate mean people. I do not tolerate people telling me how to live my life and forcing their preferences and choices upon me (don’t you be calling yourself “pro-choice” then spend time working to deny me of my ability to choose merely because you don’t agree with my choices).  I will not tolerate ill-behaved children. I will not tolerate chicken being served for dinner all the time.

There are things I tolerate, there are things I do not. I will not represent myself as tolerant unless I truly am. I will not represent myself as open-minded unless I truly am. If I have a log in my eye and fail to see and remove it, I hope someone will point it out to me so I can remove it and see (myself) more clearly.