When politics affects my pen purchases

[TFarnon]

I won't name the individual here, not because I'm trying to be all snide and secretive, but because for everyone like this individual and for everyone like me, there is another "me" and another individual with their roles reversed here. And it says nothing about the reliability of the individual selling or repairing in terms of sales or repairs.

Still, I was saddened to see that someone I wanted to add to my mental list of regular sellers to browse has political views that are completely the opposite of mine. Those views are so much the opposite of mine that I can't bring myself to even consider buying from that seller. I'm not even angry about it--I'm just sad that I can't see my way to purchasing from this seller. I wish the seller hadn't made those political views known. I wish I hadn't found those political views.

I know this is far from the first time that I've encountered strongly opposing political views that openly held by a small businessperson. I know this is one of the advantages and pitfalls of being a small business owner. You can make your business exactly the way you want to make it. You can't exactly fire yourself. But you can lose or gain customers in the process. I guess it all works out in the end.

I simply want to think favorably of everyone, and some people make that difficult or even impossible. Eh. If wishes were horses, I'd be up to my eyeballs in manure.