when i was a little girl, i was a very big fan of every disney movie ever made. (well, minus sleeping beauty, because i was quite terrified of the witch.) my favorites were cinderella and beauty and the beast and i did my best to act like belle and cindy every chance i had. also, after crying and making my mom fast-forward through the point where bambi's mother dies, i was a pretty big fan of bambi as well. mainly because i loved thumper. and one of his little tidbits of wisdom has stuck with me all these years...
"if you can't say anything nice, don't say anything at all."
i can actually still see/hear thumper saying it. it was my very favorite line in the movie and my parents can probably tell you i quoted it precociously quite often, likely when i wanted my little brother to be punished for something brother-like that he'd said. anyway, over the past two days, i have encountered two separate situations of insensitivity and rudeness. yes, we are all entitled to our opinions, but i don't understand why we can't just keep unsolicited negativity to ourselves. i don't intend for this post to be dramatic or passive aggressive - both incidents to which i refer were completely unrelated to me - i just get frustrated when we don't objectively analyze conflicting opinions. we're all wired so differently it's inevitable that we're going to disagree. there's absolutely no way around it. but no one is right all the time. i'm a very big proponent of candor and intentional communication, but i think these things can be accomplished while still maintaining respect for others. i think we can all say "i disagree with you" without saying "you're an idiot for thinking this way". either that, or remember thumper's wisdom and refrain from saying anything. you have to pick your battles, after all.
thanks for reading. :o)
image via fanpop
No comments:
Post a Comment