Originally posted on Facebook HERE
Cold and rainy this morning. This week I’ve been thinking about people’s opinions, including my own, and why it is we get so determined to let the world know how we feel about everything. So often on social media we will fight to the death to defend our position on everything from how sports teams should be run to what political views serve us best to how we should run our personal lives and believe in God. I’ve seen threads turn extremely ugly on all those topics. And years ago I’d be right there in the middle of it. But at some point I realized that for all the angst and wrath spewed in every online argument over what is and/or isn’t good for us, the country and the world – what were the people who fought the most vehemently fighting for? Because nothing ever changed. Both sides just dug in further. Every once in a while a friendship or business relationship was ended after a disagreement. What good did that do? You can’t ever “win”, if that’s what you’re seeking. And there is an unending list of topics to be pissed off about these days as well. Masks or no? Vaccine or no? Politics, sports, religion… I have no desire to jump in the fray any more and I haven’t for years now. Life is just too short to be pissed off all the time about what somebody else thinks or does. That in and of itself is an opinion that I’ve expressed to others and been lambasted for, because some people feel like you have to “take a stand”. I think I understand that line of thinking as well, because you can’t just blindly let injustices happen because you don’t want to get involved, either. What we think are “injustices” varies greatly from human to human, though. I try to stand up for what I believe in, but not be a jerk about it I guess. When I hear someone expressing an opinion contrary to mine, I can easily walk away. I don’t need to type a response. If I see enough from somebody that I realize they shouldn’t be in my life anymore I can unfriend and/or block them on social media. Sometimes not being friends on the internet helps keep a real friendship alive. Because I know people personally that I really like that I have no interest in reading their opinions on because they’re so contrary to mine. Our opinions are just that. And there’s as many opinions as there are people. What we think is right is what will be right for us at that time because in thinking that we make it so. But I’ve looked back on my life and seen that sometimes what I was dead certain was right years ago… well, I’m not so sure about it now. Times change. People change. Opinions change. And through it all we can conduct ourselves with civility if we choose to do so. It can be a tough thing to do if someone gets in your face about something, anger can well up and before we know it we’ve lost time, energy and maybe a friend to an argument about who should be the Packers backup quarterback. Learning to stand up for what you believe in but not be pissed off about the people who think otherwise shouldn’t be that hard to do, right? Take a look at your feed. I’m constantly weeding out angry hate filled posts. I have no place for that or the people who express opinions that way in my life. We don’t need to be mad all the time. We can walk away. And it doesn’t mean we aren’t working for the causes we believe in. We can do it in a way that maintains a peaceful, loving lifestyle. That’s our choice (IMO)…
