;)
*A to Z Challenge Alert: I’m playing catch-up today for Letter O and my post for Letter P will be published soon.
Research specialist, Lisabeth, delivered a thorough report on journalist Mikael Blomkvist to a company suing him for slander in the mystery drama “The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo” starring Daniel Craig and Rooney Mara. In a meeting, however, the company’s head executive told Lisabeth he was more interested in what’s not in this report – her opinion; to which she responded “I’m not paid to give my opinion.” If more people withheld information or observations that didn’t warrant an inclusion in conversations that concerned a particular subject, like Lisabeth does, our lives would be so much easier to handle.
Since the beginning of time, it seems like everybody and their momma not only have an opinion, but are very willing to share it with you, me and everyone they know – even when unprompted – whether we pay them or not. There’s nothing wrong with expressing ourselves by sharing our thoughts and viewpoints with the world. Yet, it is unnecessary to do so if these viewpoints are filled with judgment, gossip or plain ol’ information that does more harm than good.
The way I see it (IMO, of course!), there are only a few positions in which one is justified in distributing their opinions to others who may or may not use the information to treat someone badly or aid in his or her misfortunes. These positions include but are not limited to newspaper/magazine columnists, authors and talk show hosts – and even then we still have to question – do we really need to know what they think? Oftentimes, we don’t.
Our lives would be better served sharing information on a need to know basis, just like Lisabeth only gave her opinion when prodded to do so. She gave the businessman what counted – information that could be used to help his company’s case against a reporter. So let this be a lesson learned that if you’re going to share your opinion, then at least make it count for something.
- Make it count in the form of who or what you choose to vote for on a local, national and international level – from your Mayor to the food served during your kid’s soccer team trip to whether or not they build a WaWa or Starbucks down the street.
- Make it count where you choose to spend your dollars by supporting businesses that are worth your hard-earned money and refraining from shopping at or patronizing companies that do not deserve it.
- Make it count with the company you keep by not hanging out with people who are toxic to your own personal, spiritual or mental growth and people who try to challenge your beliefs instead of accepting your differences. This may or may not include people who drive under the influence, people who are cruel to animals, people who are violent or just anyone whose actions or disposition clashes with your own in a bad way.
;)
Our lives would also be much easier if we stuck to facts like Lisabeth did in “The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo.” Even though she shared her opinion throughout the movie, she delivered the facts to her clients first. Let this also be a lesson; if you’re going to entertain someone else’s opinion, don’t accept it as fact just because they told you so.
A fact holds more weight and is supported by material that increases its validity. Opinion, however, is not fact. Still, that’s not to dismiss the usefulness of an opinion – it just depends on where it comes from since some people’s opinions hold more weight than others. This is probably due to either their level of credibility or their being in a position to sway popular opinion one way or another.
The film industry is a classic example of an opinion being given equal – or more – power than facts in some cases. A glowing review and two thumbs up from the late Roger Ebert would give little known indie films a better chance at being noticed by larger audiences; the same review may not be as noteworthy if it were authored by a random blogger named Joe Blow’s in Kentucky.
All in all, an opinion is typically challenged by another person’s opinion and so on until it becomes just one big fat mess of blabber. There are too many people talking about nothing and too many people causing drama, stress and trouble with their opinions. Let’s cut through all of this noise, to find the discussions that lift us up instead of the conversations that break us down.
When has someone else’s opinion impacted YOU in a negative way?
Can YOU describe a time when another person’s opinion affected YOU in a positive way?
Do YOU share your opinion without being prompted or do you keep it to yourself until asked?