Be right or happy? Do we have to choose?

"Whose side are you on?", "Do not take his/her side!", are commonly heard among lovers, friends, or family members, when one person has a different opinion or belief from the other one. There are many people who confuse love and support with being in agreement all the time, and I am not just talking about having different opinions about different topics. No, sometimes people want you to deny facts, pure logic, just to prove your love and support!

For example, if you know the meaning of a word that they think it means the exact opposite thing from what it really does, they want you to believe them. Even if in private, not in front of a crowd, you open the dictionary to teach them something new, they take it as a personal attack as opposed to you wanting them to know the correct meaning, not wanting them to be humiliated by using or understanding the word in its opposite meaning. They rather not know it than to learn it from you. They do not see it as a learning experience, rather you proving them wrong. There are other forms of support people seek in order for you to prove your love. They may not want you to socialize with a particular friend or family member just because they do not like him/her, or that they see them as a treat to the relationship they are having with you.

There are not that many people who make a stance for logic, truth, honesty, and doing what is right. What hurts is that often times a person knows they are taking a wrong or illogical stance, but they do it anyways to make the other person happy. As Dr. Phil says: "Do you want to be right, or do you want to be happy?". I agree so many things are worthless to argue about, and after all life is too short to spend it arguing. But why do people have to lie, or act the way they do not approve of deep inside, to be happy? Who says there has to be a choice? Does it mean we cannot be our true selves and be happy in a relationship? Why cannot we be open to the idea of learning from each other and value growing in our relationships instead of thinking the other person is putting us down, or trying to prove us wrong just by knowing something we do not, or by having a different opinion? Why people have such big egos, and are always on the defensive side, taking everything as personal attacks?

Then, there are these rare jewels who respect logic, honesty, and doing the right thing. They are open to learning experiences and you learn a lot from them too. If you are lucky enough to have such people in your life, do not let go of them. I have a few, and chances are if you cannot get rid of me, you are one of those people. I thank you for giving hope to humanity!