Differing Opinions and the Eternal Search for Purpose and Meaning

Differences of opinion are everywhere. As the old truism goes ”Opinions are like assholes, everybody has one.”

As human beings — at least as thinking human beings — most of us tend to gravitate towards those things that make sense to us; those things that give our lives purpose and meaning.

0264-PinkCornflower.JPG

These ”quests” can lead us in very different directions — some people are only driven by seeking echo chambers where everything in their immediate environment agrees 100% with their established life perspective; some people are crusaders and revolutionaries whose lives gain meaning by eternally ”stirring the pot” and upsetting others or "the establishment" for variety of reasons. Some just want to be left alone.

Poppies
The humble mustard flower

Regardless of which path is yours, one thing is for sure: you will run into opinions that are different from your own.

You will also discover how important (or not!) any one person's opinion is to them, and how attached (or not!) we are to our opinions.

regardless of what it is that you have decided matters to you in life, the possibility always exists that this ”thing” that represents your particular glowing ember of passion either just isn't important to anybody else, or perhaps outright doesn't make sense to anybody else. And no amount of persuading, ridiculing, goading, challenging or compromise can change that.

So what do you do?

Do you keep railing against everybody else who thinks differently from you, trying to persuade them that they are either wrong or stupid or both?

Or do you simply reach a point where you have to make peace with the fact that your perspective is not relevant to them?

Or do you reach the alternative point of recognizing that perhaps they are "as right" as you are, given their particular point on the curve of existence?

0136-Cosmos.jpg

Sometimes it can be tricky for us to step outside the views of the world that keep us anchored in whatever it is we've determined to constitute ”reality.” OUR reality.

When I was a young adult, I would occasionally play golf with a friend of my stepdad’s who was a retired businessman and who taught me a lot of common sense about life.

Poppies
The humble mustard flower

One of the things he pointed out to me once — which seems relevant to these thoughts I'm having at the moment — is that what's important to a twenty-something new mother might not necessarily be important to an old codger like him.

He shared that nugget against the backdrop that both the young mother and the old codger could be extremely sincere about what "the best thing" to do was at any given moment, both feeling assured that they were right, while both missing the point about where each other was on their journey through life.

Geoffrey is long dead now, but another nugget of wisdom he passed along is that "some people just like to fight." And — by extension — their forcefulness can be less about holding an opinion than about "FIGHTING for" an opinion.

In retrospect, I find myself wondering whether my own mother didn't fit into that category, although she also seemed to viciously defend her "dubious" worldviews from the perspective of being terrified of being shown that she was actually somewhat clueless...

I have often been accused of "fence sitting" because I lack much interest in talking others out of their opinions, and don't really care for the kind of belligerent "fighting" that inevitably seems to accompany strongly held opinions.

I'm just not that attached.

Thanks for reading, and have a great remainder of your Sunday!

How about YOU? What's your relationship with other people's opinions, especially when they are different from your own? Are you attached to "being right?" Comments, feedback and other interaction is invited and welcomed! Because — after all — SOCIAL content is about interacting, right? Leave a comment — share your experiences — be part of the conversation!

HivePanda.gif


Greetings bloggers and social content creators! This article was created via PeakD, a blogging application that's part of the Hive Social Content Experience. If you're a blogger, writer, poet, artist, vlogger, musician or other creative content wizard, come join us! Hive is a little "different" because it's not run by a "company;" it operates via the consensus of its users and your content can't be banned, censored, taken down or demonetized. And that COUNTS for something, in these uncertain times! So if you're ready for the next generation of social content where YOU retain ownership and control, come by and learn about Hive and make an account!

Proud member of the Lifestyle Lounge Community on Hive! PHC Logo

(As usual, all text and images by the author, unless otherwise credited. This is original content, created expressly and uniquely for this platform — NOT cross posted anywhere else!)
Created at 20210523 12:58 PDT

0264/1507



0
0
0.000
4 comments
avatar

Hi. How do you get your photos like that, I have tried but bit very successfully. Thank you :)

0
0
0.000
avatar

Hi Karen, I insert a little piece of HTML code into my post (sorry, it's an image so you'll have to type it out):

ImageJustify.jpg

where "pull-left" puts the image on the left and wraps the text; you can make it "pull-right" and the image floats to the right.

"img src" would be the URL of your image; if you're using Steempeak just upload the full size and copy that URL into the code.

Then you can substitute your own caption on the next line.

Finally, if you need to give a source for your image, copy the address of the original after the "href=" bit.

Hope that helps!

0
0
0.000
avatar

Thank you 😁. I'll have a play around with it. Thank again 😁😁

0
0
0.000
avatar

Congratulations @denmarkguy! You have completed the following achievement on the Hive blockchain and have been rewarded with new badge(s) :

You received more than 150000 upvotes.
Your next target is to reach 160000 upvotes.

You can view your badges on your board and compare yourself to others in the Ranking
If you no longer want to receive notifications, reply to this comment with the word STOP

Support the HiveBuzz project. Vote for our proposal!
0
0
0.000