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A House Divided: Red vs. Blue
A perspective from Andrew Taylor-Troutman
Everyone knows that the holiday season brings people together with competing loyalties of red versus blue … Tarheel blue, that is. Did you think I was referring to something else?
Since you can pick your sports team but not your kin, here are 10 suggestions to keep the peace with even the most rabid of Wolfpack fans.
- Give others the right to be wrong. A relative might have been born into an immediate family who taught that Julius Hodge was better than James Worthy. Misinformed, but not a character flaw.
- Affirm the common good. If your uncle gets a little teary and pulls a Jimmy V, “Don’t give up!” You can reply in good faith, “Don’t EVER give up!”
- Dean Smith was a saint. We should all agree on that.
- Keep things in perspective. As Coach Smith said, “If you make every game a life and death proposition, you’re going to have problems. For one thing, you’ll be dead a lot.”
- It can be wise to change the subject. For example, no need to discuss a certain double-overtime football game that took place in Chapel Hill the day after Thanksgiving.
- Don’t forget to listen. There are spaces, such as a football field or voting booth, when we make a choice based on our values of right and wrong. Yet, families gather around tables, which can be opportunities for conversation. Not food fights.
- Stick to holiday tunes, not fight songs — “Jingle Bells” instead of “Go to hell, State!”
- Be true to yourself. It is fair game to wear T-shirts, sweaters, hats and other Tarheel apparel. After all, color brings life and energy. How boring if we all sat around in the same uniform of white polos and brown khakis!
- The great common denominator is pets! The idea of “man’s best friend” goes all the way back to King Frederick of Prussia in 1789 and dogs can still be a great topic of conversation for your humble family in 2022.
- When all else fails, you can always agree on the real enemy. As the French say, “Duck Fuke!”
(featured image via Todd Melet)
“Viewpoints” on Chapelboro is a recurring series of community-submitted opinion columns. All thoughts, ideas, opinions and expressions in this series are those of the author, and do not reflect the work or reporting of 97.9 The Hill and Chapelboro.com.
