Tolerance. Webster's defines it as such:
The allowable deviation from a standard;
But ALSO as:
Sympathy or indulgence for beliefs or practices differing from or conflicting with one's own.
I feel like in our culture, it has transformed more into the first than the second. Just think, how many times have you heard people say about someone in a class or at work, "I tolerate him/her." People never say this about people they really like or relate to, ever notice that? No one says they tolerate their friends.
Yet "tolerance" is this big thing now for so many things - the LGBT community, different religions, and even just for different ways people live their lives.
What has tolerance become but a way to get by with little conflict? The way we use the word on an everyday basis is "putting up with" rather than "empathizing with." Tolerance, in our culture, has nothing to do with love. It has given us a way out of the struggle to love people we differ from.
Personally, I'd be offended if someone said they tolerated my beliefs, because to me, that means they're just brushing them aside and not giving a rat's ass about it.
Anyways, those are my thoughts. I'd never really considered the meaning of tolerance before.
Peace & Blessings
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