Obliterating Opinion.

“When another blames you or hates you, or people voice similar criticisms, go to their souls, penetrate inside and see what sort of people they are. You will realize that there is no need to be racked with anxiety that they should hold any particular opinion about you.”― Marcus Aurelius

I have typed the opening line to this blog post about fifteen times now but absolutely nothing seemed to fit my intended approach, so there it is – now it is an opening line about not having one and to be frank… that fits better than anything else I considered. Some days you can literally overflow with fluidly seamless content and then there are others where there seems to be nothing more than a mass of knotted twine within your head. Today, I actually feel like I have a foot in both worlds because there is a lot that I want to say and I have absolutely no idea where to begin or how to get the words out.

For good reason, and also because I have been made privy to certain things that (in hindsight) I am not entirely sure I should have been, I have done a lot of thinking lately about people, their opinions and the flippant mouths used to express such. They say “Your opinion of me is none of my business” and yes there is great truth in that but on the flipside of that coin, I think that sometimes it is good to be exposed to the truth – be it brutal. I opted for the latter and now I need to find a way in which to process it all, because it has literally come from a thousand different angles.

“If someone isn't what others want them to be, the others become angry. Everyone seems to have a clear idea of how other people should lead their lives, but none about his or her own.”― Paulo Coelho

I have lived my entire life with people misunderstanding me as an individual – seldom bothering to take time enough to cross the threshold of personal insight. This is very familiar to me and therefore leaves me relatively “un-shocked” by people’s actions, but not devoid of sadness. I am all for opinions, heck – I come from a family of opinionated men, and I have plenty of my own… but pray tell – how is it that people develop opinions of others without any first-hand experience?! How is it that people who have never so much as said a single solitary word to you feel that they are in a position to mock, ridicule and belittle your character. Humans are masters at attempting to kill the human spirits surrounding them in the interest of self-preservation and sadly so.

To my mind, unless you have made the effort or been presented the opportunity to get to know me (or anyone else) personally, then you have absolutely no place to judge me, my character or my actions. If you are going to define me on the basis of what other people have said, then that says a whole lot more about you than it does about me.

“Your assumptions are your windows on the world. Scrub them off every once in a while, or the light won't come in.” ― Isaac Asimov

After much contemplation and a rollercoaster of emotions – I have decided that the best thing one can do is be the better person, no matter how hard that may prove to be. Don’t lower yourself to a point of retaliation because in essence it will then make you no better than those that ignorantly belittle you. Not everyone is going to like you and not everyone is going to take the time or make the effort of an informed decision, and that is ok. But it should never stop you from being yourself.

People do not have to fit into pre-defined boxes in order to be AWESOME individuals! NO! – In fact, I have found that the BEST people in this world are the ones that don’t even know what a box looks like and I will continue to embrace those individuals – because mark my words, when the shit hits the fan and the rest of the “fair weather world” that jumped on the commentary bandwagon has left your side – those people you lacked so much faith in, the one’s that didn’t fit your “mould” THEY will be the one’s that will still be there for you, even if you never returned the favour!

Here’s to the crazy ones, the misfits, the rebels, the troublemakers, the round pegs in the square holes… the ones who see things differently — they’re not fond of rules… You can quote them, disagree with them, glorify or vilify them, but the only thing you can’t do is ignore them because they change things… they push the human race forward, and while some may see them as the crazy ones, we see genius, because the ones who are crazy enough to think that they can change the world, are the ones who do. — Steve Jobs, 1997