Growing up I leaned more towards being the quiet one. I’m sure this stemmed from being around a…….chatty family. This is not to say that I didn’t or don’t have opinions on things, but as conversations seemed dominated with opposing viewpoints or opinions, I often found myself listening and taking in all that was being brought up around me. Though in retrospect, at the time my mind may have been thinking about other things, knowing for sure, I’ll never know.
What I do know now is that now I find myself far more apt to “talking” about things. I’m probably more picky\choosy on stuff depending on who I’m talking to about what. If I don’t know you, chances are pretty slim that I’ll bother talking something in depth with you about. This just stems from having had too many talks with people who have never changed their view on something. However Lord help you if you’re someone I know, and I go off on something. As it was so eloquently put by Robert Pirsig (yes…still reading through Zen again….) “when you have a Chautauqua in your head it’s hard to not inflict it upon innocent people.”
So while you’re an innocent person, you’re not in my immediate presence and can quickly click that X at the top of your browser window if you want to ignore my ramblings. But now that you’re here, and I’ve got your attention, I guess what I’m driving at today is that listening and not commenting may be one of the best ideas for many people right now. We’ve all got platforms to go off on our own opinions. There’s more than a handful of social media platforms for anyone with a face and rant to go off on anything. How often do we though just listen, and then not only verify what we’ve heard (to be true or otherwise), but also hold back our own opinions?
It never ceases to amaze me the tirades many folks will go on with the slightest provocation. Heck, we’ve even got terms now like TRIGGER WARNING, and its got nothing to do with firearms (well….kinda, depending on your 2A stance). In addition to this, just about anyone can come off as an expert in whatever field they’re talking about. Am I the only one that can think back to my days in school and see that not everyone I was there with is an expert? Yet if we believed the number of talking heads going off on this, that, or the other, I’d guess its safe to say we’re about 10:1 experts to n00bs ratio.
Now do your part. If someone asks for your opinion on something, then fair enough, engage. Though there is absolutely no harm in responding to someone “I’m not well versed enough in this right now and will have to look into it more before I can provide an appropriate response.” If someone can’t handle that, then are they really worth the mental energy? I know I’m on my own level of a soapbox here, so click that little X at the top right of your browser. I’ll be off somewhere, trying my best to just listen…..and now.
-Andrew
