Blog 49  – 6.12.15

That is all I really have to share, my perspective, my opinion. That may be true for me but may or may not be for you. So I hope you will find something in the words I share each day, Monday through Friday, to lighten your step, brighten your way, and encourage your heart.

When I was a senior in high school I had a column in the school paper called In My Opinion. Each issue on the editorial page I got to share what I have come to think of as my view slightly askew. Some might think of this as my own voice, my particular and unique way of looking at things.

I have for most of my life considered myself a wordsmith, a writer, a poet. The measure of a writer or poet is how well or how often they are able to put into words what you are thinking but just couldn’t find the words. All of us, even us wordsmiths, are sometimes at a loss for words. Grant you that does not happen much in my family as I come from a long line of those who have kissed the Blarney Stone and have a gift for gab.

My August Bride’s father is quite a talker and she thought he could even out talk my daddy who was in my mind a true champion of seizing and holding the floor. When I first understood the term filibuster I thought that is what my daddy does. If you could even get a word in edgewised, as the expression goes, when you finished your piece, dad would start right back where he left off. He almost never lost his place in whatever story or rant he was “holding court” with and he seemed to not even pause to breathe.

We got our two dads together one Easter before my daddy passed and my last wife had to admit my daddy was the bigger talker hands down. Her daddy, in most company the king of talk, said but a few words. My dad shut him down big time.

As a child and young man dad’s manner of controlling most if not all of any conversation use to disturb and even embarrass me. But I loved my daddy and came to appreciate him for who he was. It is amazing how wonderful people become to us when we quit trying to make them over and accept them as the magnificent and unique beings they are.

We all have opinions. Do not listen to that negative voice we have all heard all our lives saying, “Keep your opinions to yourself.” Share your opinions and listens to those of others without judgement. It may surprise you how much common ground we all have and you might even developed some new and more informed opinions. Maybe not most of us resist change pretty strongly but at least you might learn a thing or two about someone close to you.

Your Fellow Traveler with an opinion,
David White