“You don’t know what you’ve got until it’s gone.”

— Proverb

There’s a word that’s almost completely missing today in our national dialogue.

De Biefve, Compromise of Dutch nobles, 1849

It’s not used much by the left or the right, the atheists or the deeply religious, the Muslims or the Christians, the Hindus or the Buddhists.

It’s not written much on Facebook. It’s rarely put in a picture meme and shared thousands of times. It’s too long to be useful on Twitter.

But it’s a word that may be as valuable as any religion or ideology.

In fact, it may be one of the most important words ever invented since people gathered themselves into tribes and communities thousands of years ago.

The word?

Compromise.

It means something, and it solves problems.

But only if we use it.

Yesterday’s gift of time … Came home from work early to try to teach the kids that it’s important to sacrifice a little personal ideology for the greater good … Maybe our world could stand to use the word compromise a little more as well.