Well, hello, my friends, and welcome to Monday morning moments with John O'Leary.

I record these so that you and I can begin our days and our weeks in awe and on fire with a burst of some much needed inspiration.

Today's topic, are we making things worse?

Are we making things worse?

Let's begin by quoting the great and late and wonderful Fred Rogers.

Out of difference can come the reinforcement of two important values.

One is tolerance, and the other is awareness that people who disagree over the things they hold dear

really can live together in love and in respect.

Recently, my friends, I had the unenviable draw of being seated next to a couple on an airplane flight while they fought.

As I soon learned and everybody within about 11 rows overheard, the day for them had gone very poorly.

Among a laundry list of accused grievances included that the alarm wasn't set right by her.

Uber wasn't scheduled correctly by him. The blue bag, you know the blue bag. Yeah, the blue bag was

supposed to be brought down the stairs and loaded into the car. The dog should have been dropped off the

evening before and they should have paid for the TSA pre-check to avoid the lines. Well, I guess I will

agree with them on the last one. That one is certainly true. You should be TSA pre-checked, my friends.

But here's the thing. This couple, in spite of all their nagging and bickering and yelling, they were on the flight.

They made the flight.

They also were retired.

They were healthy.

And they were heading to Florida together, unable to simply let go of the challenging morning. As the squabble died down, I thought of all the

stupid fights and arguments that I've had in my life. And I regretted that most of those fights,

most of those arguments candidly, were with the people that I love most. My friends, how often arguments are

...