Opinion

I write a blog which is all opinion all the time. The only truth I represent is my own. I am not branded by any political, religious or cultural loyalty for loyalty's sake. That is the business of patriots, fanatics and ethnocentrists.

 

I recently responded to a piece on a National Public Radio station. I wrote a measured comment on the station's Web site, stating my opinion on the matter at hand. My opinion ran against the majority of written opinions at the end of the written synopsis of the radio piece.

 

Since then, I have been relentlessly pursued by an angry member of the not-so-silent majority. If you have been in this position, you may know how it goes. The respondent was so personal and off-base in his/her reply to my post, I decided to reply. After two more retaliatory attacks on my attempts to dialogue, I let my virtual attacker know I was more than happy to defer to his/her wish to have the last word on the subject. I had no last word on the complex situation being discussed in the piece.

 

Opinion does not invite agreement in itself. This blog does not beg or invite agreement, for example. Opinion  invites dialogue in some situations. I happen to prefer dialogue which is more actual than virtual. Without dialogue or group discussion, opinion of the one is simply that. However, when I state an opinion frankly to invite dialogue as I did in this recent case, I do expect dialogue and not diatribe.

 

We swim in opinion on this medium. My personal Facebook homepage makes my head spin. Maybe that's just me. My stated opinion here is a functional part of my daily mental, creative and communicative practice. It is not intended as a podium. It is an open invitation into my thoughts and my practice. I try to be a gracious host to responses to my words. I am not looking for an argument, but I will post varied opinions on what I have written when they are offered. I reserve the right to not post responses which offend or are off-point.

 

I would encourage anyone who reads my opinions to spend time formulating his/her own. This is my greatest hope for this blog: That it may stimulate thought and action about values and practice in the reader.