July 20. 2026- Logic rarely cuts through emotion

You cannot reason a person out of a position he did not reason himself into in the first place.

~Jonathan Swift

Social media around election season – why would we put ourselves through that? People develop their emotional connections to a particular candidate or party. Others make a logical argument why that choice is wrong. The logical argument is countered by an emotional rant. The rant is countered by personal attacks and name-calling. At the end of it all, we still end up voting for the same candidates we were going to, but we have lost friends and gained enemies along the way.

When we want to make changes in our lives, we can’t ignore the emotional attachments we may have made to a behavior we would like to discontinue. We may know we need to drink less, but we attach drinking to great times with our closest friends. We can try to make a logical argument to ourselves why we should curb our drinking, but logic rarely cuts through emotion. Until we come to terms with the emotions, identifying them, at the very least, our logic will fail to change us.

Our emotions matter. There are often deep-seated reasons why we think and act the way we do. Let’s identify those emotions and regulate them as needed, when we seek change. There is a time and a place for logic, but we must ground ourselves and turn to it in calm and peace.