I just had a baby! While I am out on maternity leave for a few weeks or so, I have begged some of the bloggers that I stalk most admire to contribute guest posts to this space so it won’t be lonely. The posts are so awesome that I am afraid you won’t want me back.
The goal of these guests posts is to bring new and different insights to this space. Viewpoints that I am unfamiliar with, advice from those who have been where I have not been, and ideas that might seem foreign to myself and my readers but are important to consider.
Today’s guest blogger is Texan Mama from Who Put Me In Charge Of These People. I met Gretchen in 2009 at a DFW blogger meetup at the Grand Lux in Dallas. I am especially excited to have her guest posting because I greatly admire her honesty and ability to describe exactly how she feels about things, even when she takes flak for it. Way to go, Texan Mama!
~~~~~
I’ve heard snippets here and there online about people being closed-minded or narrow-minded.
What, exactly, does that mean?
Does being closed minded mean that a person is not open to other views as being right, that only their own point of view could be the possible answer to a question or solution to a problem?
Does being narrow minded mean that someone rejects anyone who does not conform to their definition of “right” or “moral” or “appropriate”?
Uh-oh.
Do you think smoking is wrong? If you do, does that make you closed-minded? Even though it has been proven that smoking is hazardous to a person’s health, don’t they have the right to do whatever they want to with their own body?
What do you think about people who curse around young children? Would that be considered inappropriate? And if so, who exactly put that standard in place?
These are just a couple of examples, but here’s my point: it’s really popular nowadays for folks to stand up and say, “I hate people who can’t be open minded.” But wait, by hating someone who has different views than you… aren’t you being closed-mided to THOSE people? This is especially true for a lot of hot-button societal issues.
Like, for example, people who dress their dogs in costumes. I mean REALLY what is WRONG with those people???
No, seriously, think about it: I’m not targeting YOU per se, dear blog reader. I’m just saying, it gets really easy to fling rotten fruit at people we don’t like, all in the name of standing up for what we believe in. But if what we believe in is acceptance of everyone equally, that includes people who don’t agree with the rotten-fruit-flinger.
Just a thought.