Dealing with Others

Many people are passionate about different things in life. Football, politics, fishing, hunting, etc. We can even let other peoples' passions get on our nerves. Talking with others who are passionate about something and you disagree with them can lead to arguments and at times fights. I'm passionate about hunting and I'm not influenced by what others think. Most of the time I don't even care. Over the years I have butted heads with animal lovers. Most of them think hunters are barbarians. Many of these are miss informed. Because they think that animal lovers are the ones who started conservation programs to save animals. They don't realize that hunters started these programs and give a portion of all hunting licences and fees back into these programs. I've seen people who are passionate try to change others to think the way that they think. Not just with hunting but other things like football fans who cheer for one team and try to change other fans of other teams to their side. Not likely to happen. It is the same with politics. I have seen it happen time after time. When we are passionate over things and others can't understand. We should try to see things from their side. I'm not saying change to think as they would, because I wouldn't. But we should understand not all our passions are the same. I recently saw a friend of mine compromise how he did things about something he was passionate about so he wouldn't offend me. I usually say what ever I want no matter who I offend. But I ran across someone who was passionate about something, poker, which to me is something on the lines of Uno, dominoes, clue, risk, and any other GAME. Playing against this person ,we had different styles. It was for chips, not real money, so I played like there is no tomorrow, taking some risk. I got put out quickly by calling someones bluff, and they weren't bluffing. The person who was passionate about poker took offense that it didn't faze me. He even started really talking trash talk to me. This is just being a guy. But he pushed to far in my opinion and almost got me to tell him what I really thought. That would have hurt his feelings and offended the others at the table. I held back for better relations in the future. Something I don't normally do. My wife says I'm maturing in my thinking. But me, I could see his side and his passion. Just like mine for hunting.