Living In Tolerance

What is intolerance? In the definition I find most useful for this discussion, dictionary.com says it is the incapacity or indisposition to bear or endure. That definition begs the question: Why are we intolerant? This is a much harder question to answer, but I think it typically boils down to four reasons that I will phrase from my own perspective:

• I have experienced something irritating or offensive that I refuse to revisit.
  
• I have a prejudice against something I refuse to tolerate.
  
• Something I have never experienced before seems similar to something I can not tolerate.
  
• Something frightens me and my reaction is to reject it.

Given the above, it seems that intolerance isn't always a bad thing. There are reasonable circumstances that would trigger the conditions above. Some of those you and I might not agree upon, but that doesn't make them any less valid. In other words, my reasonable intolerances may seem unreasonable to you. Hopefully they don't trigger your level of reasonable intolerance.

Whew!

This can easily cause conflict even when everyone is reacting in a way that is reasonable for them. So where is the gold here? I think it's in giving people room to be who they are... to meet people where they are even when they seem irrational or unreasonable. I'm still working on this.

What do you think?