A Call for Cohabitation
- Sep 17, 2025
- 2 min read
Over the last week, our collective nervous system has collapsed into a national unveiling of a really hard & confusing possibility - are we getting worse, not better, at cohabitating as humans? If you live online, it seems that way.
So much has been said about the horrifying political assassination of Charlie Kirk. Like a match thrown on a drought-ridden hillside of cultural tension, his jarring death in our own backyard has surfaced some of our worst tendencies -
Partisanship, tribalism, binary thinking, & reactionary retribution. Here we go, so they say, into yet another loop of me vs you & red vs blue.
Do we celebrate death when we disagree? No. Democracies require dialogue & debate. Not death.
Do we gloss over or glorify rhetoric that many find dehumanizing & disrespectful? No. Democracies require empathy, accountability & inclusion.
In weeks like this, many things can be true at once.
This is one such truth - at the end of the day,
WE MUST COHABITATE.
And, honestly, we’re pretty good at it.
Not sure where to start? - Ditch your phone & get offline. Step outside & reject the divisions you are being told & sold to feel.
There you’ll be reminded that we can, and will, continue to cohabitate in peace.
Last weekend we were reminded of how easy cohabitation can be when we hosted republicans & democrats alike for a raging blue grass evening of folk music, pizza, & hot springs.
We all took a moment to look around & take in that fact. Half naked strangers all sharing in the same magical moment of healing, connection & simple company.
Then, the next day, we welcomed up a dozen men as part of our Gentle Men’s Meet Up to discuss mental health, life after injury, how to make & keep friends. Men cried, shared & lent advice.
We sat under a big tree that is older than all of us and looked out at happy people in pools. In moments like those, and perhaps ones happening right now in your local park or block or church or convenience store, the truth is, in real life, we do really well together more often than not.
When you’re baited towards war with our differences, lean in, instead, to make peace with our similarities.
