“We’ve been suckered into thinking we must have an opinion on everything. There’s just so much I don’t care about.” – Annie Hatfield, Twitter, @HatfieldAnne
I read this yesterday and it resonated completely with me. My opinion is that this tweet is so good, that I had to stop, drop and roll to one of my sacred notebooks and jot this keen insight down immediately.
In today’s world, it’s awfully hard to admit that “you just don’t care” about many things, isn’t it? But I wasn’t the only one who related to this tweet. So far, it has gotten almost 2500 likes in less than 24 hours. Perhaps we will all be cancelled, or labelled “stupid” or “callous” or “blasé” or “ignorant.”
When I do care about something, I care deeply and passionately and fervently. When I do care about someone or something, there will be no questioning it. You will know. I’m full of fire. If I put that kind of care and energy into everything, I would have burned myself out long ago.
When I was a teenager, my father told me that if I was going to take a stand on something, I had better make sure that it is something that I believe in and care about with every fiber of my being. And then he said to make sure that I learn everything that I can about whatever hill I am standing on, including all the insights and counter-insights to my beliefs about said subject.
I believe that my father was correct, and so to have a strong opinion on something, takes a lot of work, a great deal of personal insight and self-awareness, plenty of research and a big dollop of empathy. And it takes the ability to be open-minded enough to have your opinion changed, if growth and knowledge occurs over time and experience. In short, strong opinions require strength, passion, wisdom and humility.
I have always believed that “variety is the spice of life.” I am grateful that there are people who care passionately about subjects that I don’t care about. I am thrilled that there are tribes of people for every phenomenon on this earth, so that people can commune with others and share a common love and vision and passion together. This is what makes the world such an interesting place where we can all pick and choose as to what to dabble in, and what to care about, and what to create strong opinions about. If we all do our parts to resolutely care about at least a couple of things that matter to us, we’ve got enough hands on deck to make sure that all of our bases are covered.
Are you passing on love or are you passing on pain? Heal your pain and pass on love.
Kelly, I love that you’ve given a voice to this opinion. My therapist recently assigned me a task, to write down the things that will never change about myself. On that list I included the fact that even though I feel like I should care much more, there are certain topics that I will never pay much attention to, and that I was glad that other people were passionate about the subjects I’m not interested in. It made my therapist laugh, but then she admitted that it was actually a very deep insight, and that she can’t recall any of her other patients making a similar statement. So, I guess that demonstrates that Kellys of a certain age have achieved much wisdom! Congrats to us!
Cheers, Kelly!!