Negative99

Candor is a blogging cornerstone. If you want to blog you better have something to say and have the chutzpah to say it. Otherwise, what is the point? And if what you’re blogging poses no danger of offending someone then your content is probably devoid of any intellectually substantial thought or discourse. Have I offended people… you betcha! Both on and off my blog. Do you think that everyone who reads my blog is a Christ-following, politically conservative, military, electric-guitar loving, web design geek? Absolutely not (although those people are the coolest ). But that doesn’t mean that I can’t express my thoughts to them in a manner that gets them thinking, just like the things they say get me thinking. How boring my life would be without my friends who all think different from me in some way.

Be who you are and say what you feel, because those who mind don’t matter, and those who matter don’t mind.
- Dr. Seuss

I am an outgoing person. I’m very extroverted… in fact my Myers-Briggs rating is sometimes a straight ESTJ, meaning I’m a war general. As such I have always spoken, whether it was time to speak or not. You will hear it said that it’s much better to be quiet than to speak. You will hear people say “I’ve often regretted my speech, but never my silence.” You will hear sermons preached on the third chapter of James about taming our tongues and the massive damage our words can inflict on others.

This is all fine, but it is perilously lopsided to the point of being deceptive and dangerous. If you want to bring the Bible into it there are more of examples of Christ tongue-lashing than tongue-holding. The Book of Proverbs lauds speaking the right words at the right time. History is replete with examples of evils that were allowed to occur because of the silence of millions of people.

A word aptly spoken is like apples of gold in settings of silver.
- Proverbs 25:11

Don’t let anyone tell you that going through life having never offended anyone was the holy way to live. There exist many with wacky beliefs and ideas… and if none of them are offended by you this is to your discredit. They say that defeat is just part of the road to winning… and the the only true losers are the ones who never try. I think the same is true to some extent with the expression of our ideas and principles… and that the only true losers are the ones who think that by staying quiet they’ve performed the more honorable and tolerant action.

Absolute tolerance is impossible for anyone, unless, of course, you believe in nothing.
- Brad Stine

So my blog is just an extension of how I do life. I decided a while ago that if I’m gonna’ go down I’m going down swinging. If I’m going to err it will be by actively doing the wrong thing rather than by a lack of doing anything. Now, does this mean say whatever whenever to whoever and be damned if you don’t like it? No, of course not. Common sense is still a cornerstone of higher-order humans. The proverb above specifically exhorts the use of “aptly spoken” words. The key is this… don’t let fear of not speaking perfectly aptly 100% of the time keep you silent.

You’ve got to dance like nobody’s watching, sing like nobody’s listening, and blog like nobody’s reading.