I’ve always been attracted to the different.

The tree at the edge of my front yard resembles Charlie Brown‘s Christmas tree – only taller. With spindly branches that extend frailly in every direction, it looks out of place. Its leaves are late to bloom each spring, and during the winter, the snow and ice weigh it down and cause the limbs to bow onto the street so that cars are forced to veer around it.

My wife thinks that I should chop it down.

I refuse.

I think that it has character.

For a couple of years, I’ve posted videos to YouTube. The majority of these videos have been vlogs. I don’t subscribe to many of the popular channels because most of them follow a formula to achieve popularity which makes it difficult to experience a human connection. They don’t respond to comments, so the communication is, in effect, one way. They are entertainers.

Many of the obscure vloggers, like me, focus less on the entertainment aspect of video-making and more of the communicative possibilities. Vloggers share their experiences and their views of the world. They offer glimpses into realities which we may otherwise never see. They respond to feedback and, in doing so, enrich our understanding of others.

They are a diverse collection of lovable characters.

When I say that I’m attracted to the different, I don’t mean the odd, crazy, or bizarre. I mean the calm, thoughtful, and humble. You see, we seem to pay too much attention to the loud, the abrasive, and the self-centered. So much so, that a person with a realistic sense of self has become, well, different.

Watch reality television, read random tweets, or observe how people behave in public. What do you see? I see a society that tends to embrace self-aggrandizement as if it were a virtue. It’s really unattractive behavior.

I find it hard to get to know you, if all you talk about is yourself.

If you are the person sitting alone at a party, I’m more likely to walk over and speak with you than I am to seek out the “life of the party” who craves attention. You’re probably more interesting because you are not trying to entertain.

No chest-beating, fist-pumping, attention-seeking histrionics required.

A person should have more depth than a cartoon character.

Some of the most interesting conversations that I have had have been with people who want nothing. They have no overt agenda and are simply trying to communicate and connect with another person.

It’s during these conversations that we learn about one another. We delve beneath the surface and discover the triggers that make us tick.

Our lows are just as important as our highs in shaping who we are because successes are often built upon failures. Our differences add context to our experiences. The lowly tree is beautiful when viewed in the right light.

To think differently, for me, would be out of character.

Much of what people seem to get most enraged about these days misses the mark of sensibility. An admitted political junkie, I enjoy reading newspapers and viewing political programming from the left and the right. Despite assertions to the contrary by some media outlets, there is no media that is down the middle in their reporting. My primary interest in absorbing all of this information is to ascertain the truth, and that cannot be accomplished by exposure to a single-minded view of the world.

No party enjoys losing an election. I get it. What I don’t get are the lengths to which advocates and opponents of President Obama will go to skew current events in their own image. I’m a registered Democrat and I usually, but not always, vote the party line. Democratic principles, if not the actual candidates, resonate with me. On social issues, I am a Liberal, and I make no apologies for that. In fact, the more progressive the social agenda, the better. As I mentioned in one of my vlogs last year, “Liberals love people.”

Scoff if you wish, as that would be the expected response in the current political climate, but I believe this to be true. One problem (and I recognize that there are many) is the absence of civility. There is no civility in discourse, conduct, or opposition. You either agree with me or you are crazy. If this is your view, it follows that the ideas of crazy people need not be respected. If I don’t respect you, I feel emboldened to mock you, suspect your motives, chastise your every utterance, or shout you down at a town hall meeting. None of which gets us any closer to solving our problems. This is the tragedy of the uncivil union.

I grew up in New York, a tough town, so I’m no pantywaist who expects everyone to break into a chorus of Cum Baya. I’m well versed in the fractious pace of the city — flipping and getting flipped the bird, pushing and shoving on the subway, angry tones, and distrust of strangers. Incivility is woven into the fabric of day-to-day living in the Big Apple. But we are not trying to catch a cab here! The decisions that we make during these difficult times should be geared toward securing the future of this country. There is no room for petty ideological bickering in this decision-making process.

Whatever your political views, it is certain that we are bombarded with a senseless stream of diversionary news. But the media is not the sole culprit, as everyone feeds into it – the politicians, lobbyists, and us, the consumers.

We have real problems: two wars, high unemployment, a staggering economy, too many uninsured Americans, and the ever-present fear of terrorism — just to name a few. Wasting time going over the last presidential election or looking ahead to the next one in three years does not address any of these problems. Pointing an accusatory finger at every action of the prior administration’s eight year tenure gets us nowhere.

What should we do about our problems? I do not pretend to know the answers, but like everyone, I have my views. We don’t have to agree on the decisions that will be made to address our problems, but we will ultimately be united in living with the consequences of those decisions.