Friendship

In the last 24 hours since the death of Justice Scalia, tributes and analysis has poured in.  It is widely accepted that he was a giant intellect and a historical presence on the court.  The Republicans and Democrats are predictably arguing over whether or not Obama will be able to appoint a successor.  You won't be surprised that my view is that the next President should get that choice.  But of course Obama will nominate someone.  And the Dems will scream bloody murder if the nomination gets hung up in the Senate.  But...so what.  That is the nature of our government and the way the founding fathers designed it.  Don't move too fast, give each branch the ability to slow things down, build in ways for each branch to provide a strong check and balance.  So there you go.  The Senate will put this nomination on the shelf.  Like I said, I think that is the right thing to do.  We'll see if they have the balls to see it through.

But this post is about something else. I've been struck by the numerous stories about Justice Scalia's consistent contention that he loved to argue the rule of law, but he never took it personally.  The Daily  Mail has a pretty good article about his friendship with a very unlikely colleague, Ruth Bader Ginsburg.  You can read it here.  They were about as far apart as two people can be ideologically, but they had a very close friendship.  They travelled together.  They went to dinner together.  By all accounts, they had a close friendship and respected each other.  So this is a real lesson.  A lesson in what's important.  This is really something to emulate.  I find myself getting pissed off at someone who has a different ideological or political view than me.  I find myself shying away from them.  But that is wrong.  We've got to stop looking at people as a small part of their whole and start looking at the whole person.  Let the ideological stuff fall away.  Or leave it at the door.  Start to see the whole person.  And appreciate everything that he or she brings to the relationship.  You will be much better off for it.