Today, start your writing by exploring how your view of a news event has changed over time. Perhaps you were a child and misunderstood the nuances of the event or why it happened, maybe the event involved leaders or authorities you no longer support, maybe an unrelated experience later gave you deep insight or humanized someone you’d previously perhaps demonized.
(I was recently randomly reminded of the ATF-Branch Dividian standoff years ago in Waco, TX and how it was discussed at the time versus how we talk about it now. Vox has an interesting piece about that evolution.)
Dig into this idea in your writing today, but I also urge you to exercise compassion for any way you might feel about old beliefs you once held or actions you once might’ve taken. After all, if we’re doing an appropriate amount of self-reflection and exercising intellectual curiosity, then what we believed at 25 not only won’t be what we believe at 35 or 45 or 55, but it very much shouldn’t be.
Let’s write.