From Darrell's Desk
By Rev. Darrell Maguire
I thought this month I would write about a very important subject. I was wondering how many people I know like to eat jujube candies. There is a fruit named Jujube that is in the date family but I mean the candies. Yes, I know with the state of the world, especially Canada's relationship with our American neighbours, jujubes do not seem like a critical subject, but they are so tasty. I even like all the colours, even the black ones. Seeing them poured out in a bowl makes them very tempting. I am however very picky when it comes to how fresh they are. I have been known to squeeze the bag to see if they are squishy and therefore fresh. The same test works for licorice.
My jujube story goes back to my undergraduate days, when two young ladies in the dorm I lived in, were told by the concierge that jujubes had only 15 calories a piece and the two ladies began eating them with abandon. One serving of jujube candies has 130 calories and equals 30 grams. A little more than 15 per candy. The two ladies were unsurprisingly upset when they learned that fact, especially when they were studying nutrition at the University of Guelph.
As I was thinking about jujubes and the incident from my undergraduate days, I realized how easy it would be to start a false narrative about jujubes on the Internet. I even hesitate to give an example lest someone post it as truth. Like I could post on social media that jujubes cure acne or make kids taller, and the bags of delicious gumminess would fly off the shelves. I could make money by buying shares in the companies that make them.
My chewy little indulgence is reminding me that any narrative can be presented as the truth these days without any corroborating evidence. Even the manufacturers might remain silent because the false narrative was jacking up their profits. It is something akin to what occurred several year ago when someone presented a narrative that fried chicken was good for you and buckets of it were gobbled up. The fact is that we can all enjoy eating jujubes, but if we are not careful, we can be deluded into thinking a whole variety of competing and false narratives about a candy.
If this is the result of jujube driven conversations, imagine the challenges of debating and sharing on more weighty topics, like politics, religion, or relationships. How many times lately have we entered a discussion of significant matters only to be shaken by the diversity of opinion held by a friend or family member? How many times have we just shaken our head and said, or at least thought to ourselves, how can anyone believe that?
Have you found it necessary, as I have, to censor what you might say to someone because you know their view on a subject is so contrary to your own that it is just better to avoid the subject all together. In our minds we even label people with descriptions that identify them as people we avoid in certain circumstances, because one of us is bound to upset the other, and a friendship may be ruined. Like people I know, who are liberals or conservatives, in religious or political persuasion. Best not to talk politics or religion.
The consequences of this mental editing of our conversations are that people remain divided and worse, polarized in their positions. The extreme nature of some held positions is so entrenched that no matter how logical or objective a counter opinion is, it just bounces off those who disagree.
May I suggest that for some of us, we limit our conversations to things that will not offend, like whether we like black jujubes or not. We can start on common ground and slowly and lovingly broach the deeper topics with the implicit goal of reconciliation, and objective truth. Yet, even more importantly, by being determined with God's help, to love all jujube lovers despite what colours they like, and even those who dislike them altogether.
