Article August 21, 2006 ISSUE

Who me, inflexible?

BY WARREN BOLON

I'VE NEVER MET an opinion I wasn't happy to lose. It's the nature of the beast.

Sure, it's easy enough (at least conceptually) to change one's opinions, but opinions themselves are inherently inflexible, fixed, hard-edged. They may seem to help define who we are, or to offer some kind of group identity. But firmly holding to opinions also tends to companion well with arbitrarily excluding "others" who live on the other side of a city/suburb boundary, or who sit on the other side of a church aisle.

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