One of the guys on my Facebook feed always posts up quotes from a pop philosopher. I suppose all of us have that friend, the one that’s not afraid to share posts from someone who inspires him. Maybe we even are that person.
Most of the advice that my acquaintance posts is fairly generic stuff. Things like “Don’t judge a book by its cover” or “Always be kind to one another”. Of course it’s all delivered in this philosopher’s own style and for some reason that really spoke to this friend of mine so he thought he ought to share it with everyone else.
Honestly whenever I see one of these posts I just cruise past the post. I don’t find it to be particularly sage-like or inspirational. But I don’t mind if this person posts this.
Someone did however. Someone on this person’s friend list took him to task for posting these little inspirational memes. My friend gave a very spirited and well thought defense of his posts. He wasn’t shy about his beliefs and his need to share them and as he pointed out if this other person didn’t like those posts then he was always free to unfriend him.
What really struck me though is how my acquaintance stuck to his beliefs and showed that he wasn’t ashamed or afraid to share them.
I feel that in the modern age that we’ve become too apologetic and almost ashamed of the beliefs that we hold. Whether those beliefs are religious or not doesn’t seem to matter. We try to accommodate other people and their beliefs so much that we shy away from promoting what we believe. I don’t advocate for those beliefs that are hurtful or exclude others. I also don’t believe in being obnoxious and insisting on sharing my beliefs with those that don’t want to hear about it. Don’t let me be misunderstood about that.
But I do think that there is a lot of good in the world that can be shared and we simply don’t because we are either too shy to express those beliefs or are in some weird way ashamed of them.
In The Merchant of Venice a character mentions that the quality of mercy blesses not only those that receive it but those that give it. I think it’s the same with sharing your beliefs with others.
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