opinion & experience

There is a big difference between feeling and fact. Sometimes they line up, sometimes they don’t.

There’s a big difference between opinion and reality.

There’s a big difference between information and experience.

If you have not experienced something, but you have strong opinions and feelings about it, it can be hard, but is very important, to keep some humility between the space of your perspective and the vast reality expanding past it.

Humility and care will bridge many gaps arrogance and self-inflated false confidence will not.

Sometimes our feelings are extremely strong, despite little-to-no experience, and out of conviction for these feelings or opinions, we may say or do something we later regret.

Especially when my information or opinion involves someone else and the assessment I make of them, I am trying to remember to temper my perspective with a lot of grace and patient quietness. It’s likely better I keep my opinions to myself rather than acting rashly — no matter how strong my feelings or how valid I believe my information and argument to be — in case I hurt someone else or at some point evolve to a new perspective, over the passage of time.

We change our minds. We gain new experiences, and we grow. Through this process, we shed beliefs we used to hold, and we may have our eyes opened to the enormous spectrum of realities, others’ experiences, and aspects of life we previously had less wisdom or understanding for.

Empathy is hard work. It’s easier to just have a black-and-white opinion and shout about it. It feels good to believe you’re right. But it’s even better to be kind. To be open. To be soft and gentle. Or at the very least, to be quiet and patient.

We never know. I might be wrong. I might change my mind. There’s often (always) more to story. First, do no harm, and if you can think of nothing beneficial to say, best to say nothing at all.