Purple is such a lovely color.

In my wedding post, I spoke about my family's politics. That was way too flip of me -- I used a shorthand which obscured a range of opinions about many things. (I also forgot and left out my younger brother, who is likewise liberal, although not as liberal as I am.)

Truth be told, we don't discuss politics all that much. In the past, we have discussed "religious issues": abortion, gay rights, women in the priesthood. We don't agree. I know this. I don't discuss these issues with them any more because I think the chances of changing opinions are small, and we do not see each other often enough that I want to spend our limited time together arguing.

I come from the bluest of blue states. My oldest sister and her husband and my older brother live in the reddest of red states, and my other sister likewise in a red state. My younger brother lives in another red state -- although he's a moderate. By all accounts, if our family were a microcosm of the sort of public discourse seen today, we should be barely speaking to each other.

The fact is, there are things we agree on. My sister who lives in Alaska is upset about no-bid contracts and conflicts of interests with Halliburton and what she sees as the greed of the administration. My older brother is concerned with the NSA wiretaps (heck, even my mom is worried about that, if what she said at Christmas is any indication).

The closest I came to a political argument all the time I was visiting was when my eldest sister (the mother of the bride) and I started to discuss global warming. I dropped it after a few minutes -- she had enough stress in her life just then, and I didn't want to add to it.

But I have heard this sister, the most conservative -- and nicest, by the way -- of any of us, in the past speak against capital punishment. She has a consistent ethic of life: against abortion, against euthenasia, against assisted suicide, against capital punishment. I respect that a great deal, even if I don't agree with all the positions she takes.

One of the hardest tasks facing the country today is for us to get beyond the great divide that exists between political camps. Except... what if the divide isn't as big as we are led to believe? What if we could all step back, and figure out the ways in which people of different political leanings agree with one another?

Maybe we could start listening to each other? How radical would that be?

After all, people in red states and people in blue states are .... people. Imagine that.