I drove by the duck on the way to the library. “What’s he doing, sitting in the middle of the road?” I wondered, then I looked just past him and saw the other mallard laying mangled and dead on the side of the road.<\/p>\n

I understood his paralysis. Stop and sit where you are, even if it’s a dangerous place, when you feel blindsided by life.<\/p>\n

I feel that way right now. Afraid to move, to say anything. This week North Carolina voted on a controversial constitutional amendment. I did my research, cut through the propaganda on both sides as best I could, carefully considered the issue, and then voted my beliefs.<\/p>\n

Being a lifelong non-confrontationist (I really hate to argue),  my spirit feels battered and bruised from the flying shrapnel. Facebook is a battlefield laid with landmines. Normally quiet, gentle and loving people spout rhetoric and attack the other<\/i> side. There seems no middle ground, no respect for each other, no room for disagreement. The other<\/i> side is considered stupid. People I love, respect, and cherish stand fiercely on both sides of the issue. I respect both sides. I am perceived as wimpy by many for my lack of guts to “stand up and declare what is right”.<\/p>\n

So like the duck in the road, I stop and hesitate in the middle of the minefield. If I try to explain my convictions I fear I will end up like the mangled mallard on the side of the road. But eventually I know I must move out of harms way, I just pray I can make it quietly to the side of the road, off the battlefield and back into my pond.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I drove by the duck on the way to the library. “What’s he doing, sitting in the middle of the road?” I wondered, then I looked just past him and saw the other mallard laying mangled and dead on the side of the road. I understood his paralysis. Stop and sit where you are, even …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"spay_email":"","jetpack_publicize_message":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p7zbKo-Lx","_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/sheilascribbles.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2947"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/sheilascribbles.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/sheilascribbles.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/sheilascribbles.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/sheilascribbles.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2947"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/sheilascribbles.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2947\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/sheilascribbles.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2947"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/sheilascribbles.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2947"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/sheilascribbles.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2947"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}