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Nose for News by Sarah Stultz

As the middle child of three daughters, I’ve always had what I like to think of as built-in friends in my sisters.

Though we’ve all had our own interests and hobbies over the years and currently live hundreds of miles away — one sister lives in Canada, while my other sister lives in Maryland — in the last few years, we have kept up with each other pretty well through regular messages on Facebook Messenger.

We talk about all kinds of things — things happening in our lives, thing happening in politics, things happening in our country and things happening through our worldwide church. Sometimes we talk multiple times a day, while other times a few days pass before we have spoken.

In a profession where my opinions often must remain out of the public view, it has been nice to share my thoughts with them and have a sounding board about things happening. We agree on many large issues, but if there’s times we don’t, it’s nice to have a constructive conversation where all sides are respected and ideas are presented.

It’s also nice to have the different viewpoints from living in different parts of the nation and world and from having different life experiences.

It’s far from the many other things happening on social media, where people are criticizing others simply because they have a viewpoint different than their own and where memes of opinions are shared instead of facts or legitimate news articles.

I thought this polarization might die down a little after the heated election -— and it has some — but it still has a long way to go.

If you don’t have siblings where you can have the kind of relationship that I’m blessed to have with my own sisters, I hope you can find friends that can serve this role. 

Or, if you haven’t spoken to your siblings in weeks, months or years, I encourage you to reach out to them. You’ll be glad you did.

“There’s no better friend than a sister.” – — Mary Engelbreit

“A sister is a special type of angel on earth who brings out your best qualities.” — Unknown author

Sarah Stultz is the managing editor of the Tribune. Her column appears every Wednesday.