{"id":3942,"date":"2013-09-06T01:00:38","date_gmt":"2013-09-06T05:00:38","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.allandouglas.com\/blog\/?p=3942"},"modified":"2025-04-21T01:56:40","modified_gmt":"2025-04-21T05:56:40","slug":"opinions-are-like-bellybuttons","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/pineymountainfoster.org\/thoughts\/opinions-are-like-bellybuttons\/","title":{"rendered":"Opinions Are Like Bellybuttons"},"content":{"rendered":"

This article will once again begin by digging into my bottomless barrel of Old Sayings; the offering this time:<\/em>
\n\u201cOpinions are like bellybuttons; everyone has one, but some are more worthy of public display than others<\/em><\/strong>.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"bellybutton\"I am, I must confess Dear Reader, one of those people who has an opinion on just about everything and feels compelled to share it.\u00a0 Oh, you too?\u00a0 Fancy that!\u00a0\u00a0It is a great thing when our opinions about something mesh and we can celebrate or commiserate the topic together.\u00a0 But what happens when we disagree?<\/p>\n

All too often opposing opinions result in arguments, fist fights, even wars being fought.\u00a0 And why?\u00a0 Because the parties held differing opinions?\u00a0 Life is so much simpler if we can avoid open hostilities in our dealings with others.<\/p>\n

Why is it that we hold so tightly to our own opinions as indisputable truth, and yet the opinions of others are mere fancy?\u00a0 Why do people HAVE differing opinions in the first place?\u00a0 If something is true for me, it\u2019s true for you too, isn\u2019t it?\u00a0 Not at all!<\/p>\n

The Opinion Factory<\/h2>\n

You see our opinions are formed by the experiences of our own individual life.\u00a0 The opinions your parents and grandparents had will have rubbed off on you, the environment you were raised in, the schools you went to, whether or not you were ever bitten by a dog, or burned by a hot pot, enjoyed the taste of butter brickle ice cream, felt the sting of racial or sexual discrimination or were chastised for being tall or short or\u2026 well you get the idea.<\/p>\n

The path I have walked through life is probably vastly different from the one you walked.\u00a0 Therefore what you experienced and how it affected you will be different from what I experienced.\u00a0 Your experiences and familial history formed certain perceptions in your mind.\u00a0 These will be different from those I formed.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf we could read the secret histories of our enemies we should find sorrow and suffering enough to disarm all hostility.\u201d \u2013 Longfellow<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n

Why Do Opinions Matter?<\/h2>\n

I love dark chocolate.\u00a0 You may hate it.\u00a0 Would it be right for me to call you names and tell you that you\u2019re wrong if you disagree with me?\u00a0 No; it\u2019s your opinion and you are entitled to it.\u00a0 It is different from mine, but no less valid.<\/p>\n

Most people could probably agree to disagree over an issue like chocolate.\u00a0 But what about deeper issues; politics, religion, socio-economic issues,\u00a0is peanut butter better than chocolate?\u00a0 Oh, wait, we\u2019re back to chocolate again, sorry.<\/p>\n

Are these issues really any different?\u00a0 Whether I vote Republican, Democrat or Independent has largely the same root cause as whether I prefer dark chocolate, milk chocolate or white chocolate.\u00a0 It\u2019s all based on my past experiences, my perceptions of those experiences and the consequences of those experiences.<\/p>\n

Your experiences, perceptions and consequences are likely different from mine, so it is only to be expected that you might have drawn different conclusions than I have.\u00a0 Does that make you wrong?\u00a0 Does it make me wrong?\u00a0 Or does it just make us different?<\/p>\n

Different is Just a Lack of Sameness<\/h2>\n

Different is good.\u00a0 If we were all just alike this world would be an incredibly boring place.\u00a0 I am so glad that we have tall people and short people and in between people.\u00a0 I\u2019m glad we have thin people and um\u2026 not so thin people.\u00a0 I\u2019m glad we have black, white, yellow, red, brown and blue people.\u00a0 People of all sorts of persuasions and opinions and talents. \u00a0It all adds to the diversity of life.<\/p>\n

I may not agree with some choices you\u2018ve made, some opinions you hold, but they are your choices and your opinions, formed from your own life experiences.\u00a0 You came to them the same way I came to mine and therefore they are no less valid.<\/p>\n

Recognizing that we will not be able to be in perfect agreement with everyone we meet, and not letting that lack of agreement turn into hostility, is one of the best ways I know to keep life simple.<\/p>\n

You are you and I am me.\u00a0 He is he and she is she.\u00a0 Let\u2019s agree to disagree and just let it be. (and no, that\u2019s not considered poetry!)<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

This article will once again begin by digging into my bottomless barrel of Old Sayings; the offering this time: “Opinions are like bellybuttons; everyone has one, but some are more worthy of public display than others.” I am, I must confess Dear Reader, one of those people who has an opinion on just about everything … Continue reading “Opinions Are Like Bellybuttons”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[38],"class_list":["post-3942","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-life","tag-communication"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/pineymountainfoster.org\/thoughts\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3942","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/pineymountainfoster.org\/thoughts\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/pineymountainfoster.org\/thoughts\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pineymountainfoster.org\/thoughts\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pineymountainfoster.org\/thoughts\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3942"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/pineymountainfoster.org\/thoughts\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3942\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":21531,"href":"https:\/\/pineymountainfoster.org\/thoughts\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3942\/revisions\/21531"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/pineymountainfoster.org\/thoughts\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3942"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pineymountainfoster.org\/thoughts\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3942"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pineymountainfoster.org\/thoughts\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3942"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}