I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again, I love Comicon.

Over the weekend, the Valley played host to Phoenix Comicon’s Fan Fest event, a celebration of pretty much every fandom you can imagine. Along with some celebrity panels throughout the weekend, average Joes and Jills hosted their own talks on topics like science, pop culture, wrestling, comics, and more.

It’s a smaller event than the summer Comicon, but it draws a big crowd of people who are just happy to share in their excitement with likeminded individuals.

And honestly, that’s exactly what I needed right about now.

This past year, we’ve all witnessed a lot of ugliness in the world; and I’m not just talking from one person, group or even country in particular.

But while the global climate is what I would define as “pretty chilly,” we certainly seem to be raising the bar here in the good old U.S. of A. when it comes to being unkind to one another.

Now don’t get me wrong; I don’t think we should all agree on everything. But there’s a big difference between disagreeing and being just plain hateful to each other. We’ve moved beyond challenging one another’s ideas and moved into the realm of personal attacks and words intended to hurt.

Rather than celebrating our differences and trying to understand one another through them, we’re instead using them to draw a hard line in the sand. Every topic is a battlefield. Every opposing idea is seen as a threat. Every comment is an attack.

And that’s exactly why I was happy to escape to Comicon this weekend. Those folks know how to celebrate diversity and embrace the things that unite them, as well as the things that set them apart.

In the blink of an eye, two folks dressed as characters from the same movie can become best friends, sparking up a lively conversation about how much they love their unique fandom. Neither one knows where the other lives, what their life has been like, what their political views are or even each other’s name. But for a few minutes, they share their joy with each other and genuinely connect.

But even disagreements at Comicon are a delight, as it’s not uncommon to see, say, a Star Wars fan and a Star Trek faithful argue over why their particular brand of sci-fi is the best. But there’s never anger involved, and the “arguments” are always had with smiles on faces.

And why is that? Maybe it’s because those folks understand that we’ve all lived unique lives that have added up to the sum total of ourselves and, that being the case, of course we all think and feel differently.

But even if those differences lead to disagreement, the Comicon crowd seems to understand that there is another human being on the other end of the feud who feels just as strongly about their stance and deserves just as much respect.

So, yes, I’m thankful I got to escape to Comicon for a couple of days. It’s a crazy thought, but all those people dressed up as superheroes, monsters and cartoon characters were the most “human” folks I’ve witnessed in quite a while.