Happy Thanksgiving to all! I figured I’d send this out on Wednesday with the expectation that many of you will enjoy (or at least spend) time with family tomorrow. May you all have a safe and pleasant holiday!

Today’s thought was compelled by global images and from my experience two weekends ago in San Francisco, where I witnessed protests aimed at world leaders attending the APEC Summit. The marchers wished, apparently, to “Free Palestine” despite the obvious: Palestine is half a world away. It is barely in Asia; anyway, it doesn’t border the Pacific (the “AP” in APEC). Plus, President Biden wasn’t even in town yet.

Here’s what I saw, but it’s a scene that’s been repeated in many major cities:

I watched this police-escorted parade (it wasn’t much of a march) down Market1. I mainly saw people in a keffiyeh (think Arafat’s headgear), aging hippies apparently feeling nostalgic, and bicyclists enjoying the closed street.

While watching the spectacle, a song by John Mayer popped into my head. The lyrics were written during a different time in America, but the sentiment echoes. The song was “Belief” off his third album, “Continuum” (2006). [If you like concert videos, you can’t do better than this live clip. Six minutes of incredible entertainment.]

The key message of the song is the omnipresent human psychosis of, you guessed it, belief. Since it is rare for any two people to share precisely the same beliefs (even if both are devout environmentalists or Catholic clergy), its core message is timely:

Belief is a beautiful armor
But makes for the heaviest sword
Like punching underwater
You never can hit who you're trying for

So, not only was the parade mistimed and misplaced, but it also failed to hit its target.

The subliminal message for your Thanksgiving holiday meal is this: If you want to influence someone’s beliefs, it can do unintended harm if you only express your own, no matter how strongly you feel or how many facts you have on your side. Instead, I recommend listening, asking clarifying questions, and encouraging reciprocity, even if not granted. At least you’ll learn where the differences are, and once the armor is lowered, there may be a learning opportunity. This, of course, works both ways! And, if you don’t drop your armor, what makes you think your “opposition” will?

Appropriate to the post-October 7th world, the song ends with the couplet:

What puts a hundred thousand children in the sand?
Belief can
What puts the folded flag inside his mother's hand?
Belief can

Consider the unfolding tragedies in Gaza and Donetsk as you engage in those family “discussions.” As Mayer points out elsewhere in the tune, “Everyone believes.” Even minor Holy Wars, like the one I described in the last installment2, destroy a lot more than they ever change.

So the message for this holiday: Take time to listen, and give thanks for a pluralistic society based on reason3!

Enjoy your holiday!