Tracks In The Dust

A Father's Advice About Learning the Mission of Life

Archive for the tag “Sharing Opinions”

21 Feb 2014

It Goes Without Saying

I have often heard the term “it goes without saying”. Unfortunately it seems these days not all people take that advice.

There are times when it is good to be silent. It is good to be quiet. What would be said would be of no use, other than to effect someone in a negative way for no gain (other than spite I guess). Speaking just to be heard. To me it seems like that happens a lot these days. On the news, the Internet, even in social conversations. If it can be said- someone more often than not finds a way to always say it.

Shock value? A reason to feel superior, or make a point to get ahead personally? Not sure. I have posted before, the world is full of noise. And with all that noise comes the desire to be heard. \

Even if what is being said is nothing at all. Often we want to hear what famous people are saying, or politicians because we want to know that they are saying something we would say… but then they spout off nonsense (often, not always) and we go ahead and repeat it.

Really- “it goes without saying”! But we say it any way. The very old adage that “Silence is Golden” is wasted in the millennial soup that comes from hundreds of channels on TV, thousands of URL’s on the Internet, millions of social net-worker’s who want nothing more than to share their words. Opinions presented as facts, facts distorted as truths, truths masked by agendas, agendas built around being heard as often as one can.

Okay – so maybe what I am saying- goes without saying. Maybe I shouldn’t be spouting off about how people say things just to be heard, after all I am on this blog right now – doing the same.

Here I am, saying people may want to consider silence, be “quiet” instead of always saying things. NOT saying things can be just as effective, and sometimes even more so than rattling on.

So I am done. I have nothing more to say on this matter.

Posted in Doing Things That Will Change Your Life and tagged Acceptance, Being quiet, being remembered, Being Thoughtful, choices, Making A Difference, mental-health, Opinions, Reality Check, Sharing Opinions, Silence is Golden, Too Much Talk

15 Jan 2014

Common Ground

For many people today (not all) there seems to be a great need to stand out in the crowd. Yet we desire common ground for true meaning.

Some will claim that they don’t want to be part of the “crowd”. It seems that the social networking today is centered on being part of a group of people. “Friends”, “Work groups” “Fans” and “Political,Religious or sexual preferences”- we all seem to be looking for our group. It is a good feeling to know that you meld with a group of people who have something in common, yet the desire to “stand out” in a crowd seems to be contradictory but also important to most everyone. Even reinforced by the media, online and other public places by making those “stand outs” be the focus of articles, videos and headlines. The rest of us all gather round and share those things to see what makes others and themselves unique.

So there is the conflict it would seem: We desire to be part of a common group. We want to be identified that way. But it seems that we also have a desire to be treated as unique, to be different. Perhaps to feed our egos. Perhaps to satisfy the need to know that we are personally meaningful in the scheme of time (before our time is up on this planet).

So looking at the web and media it would appear that we all thrive on polarity. We keep being asked to identify which ‘side’ of the argument are you on? In fact the media and online sites want to drive this because it probably sells more media and clicks on a site. In turn, we feed that need because we want to be part of the group. We want to be identified and want to understand why the other side is so “not” in our group.

Of course we all have our own opinions ( want to stand out in the crowd? want to be heard?) But here is where it seems we miss out: we don’t seem to be focused on the similarities regardless of our own unique opinions. Standing out in the crowd is important. But surely no matter what side we land, no matter what opinion we have to make us unique and be “different”… what makes us united is that we are all commonly human beings ( the ultimate group/crowd).

There are reasons for us to be in unity, it is ultimately the reason for our existence.