What is going on ladies and gentlemen? Is is your guy Brad H. back once again in the kitchen of wisdom stirring up the the knowledge pot a bit, and I'd like to welcome you all once again to another edition of 'Brad H.'s Perspective'! I am here for another week to hopefully serve up a dish of inspiration and knowledge that will hopefully help in keeping us all motivated in our daily lives. I hope that all has been going well for everybody out there. I initially was only going to talk about the abysmal Super Bowl game that I endured nearly two weeks ago in this section. However, there was recently a more serious situation that happened recently that I want to acknowledge. As I'm sure mostly everyone knows by now, there was another school shooting that took place a few days ago. The staging ground this time around was in Florida at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Florida. This tragic incident claimed the lives of 17 people in total. I just want to give my thoughts and prayers to those that were lost, as well as their families and loved one. Honestly, what more can there really be said about these events besides they are happening all too often than they should be? I believe that it says a lot about the world that we're living in when young people are so mentally disturbed that they feel they have to resort to these type of acts. I'm not sure what more can be done besides more gun regulations, background checks, mental health checks, etc. What I do know is that it is pretty sad that we live in the kind of world where when people mention that a mass shootings has taken place, and the first thing you wonder is where now? There are a lot of deep rooted issues that have to be addressed to prevent things like this from happening in the future. Again, my thoughts go out to everyone that were lost in this tragic event. That's pretty much my thoughts on this unfortunate incident, so lets go ahead and get into this week's topic of the importance of opening ourselves up to the ideas that others have.
As with the normal disclaimer that I give before addressing any of the topics I discuss, I want to say that we all have different viewpoints and ways of seeing things. The goal here isn't to force my beliefs on anyone else, but rather to hopefully to encourage others to maybe view things in a manner in which they may not have before. You are well within your rights if you happen to disagree with or don't share the same views as I do. Whatever your beliefs or outlook on life may be, I still appreciate those of you that have taken out some time to see what I have to say. Hopefully what I want to address is able to reach someone out there. As for how I arrived at this particular topic, I can't really really point to anything specific besides it just being something that has been on my mind recently. Furthermore, being that I'm trying to focus on becoming a more tolerant and understanding person towards others, I feel that this is a topic that can help me to keep myself accountable towards that goal. There may be some of you out there that read this and probably don't feel it is of importance to try and see things from the perspective of others, and that is totally fine if you feel that way. That said, I doubt that applies to many of you because I know from the feedback that I've gotten from over the years that I've been doing this has came from mostly positive and enlightened individuals. Some of us are striving to become the best versions of ourselves, and what better way to do that than opening up our minds a little more to others?
I mentioned earlier how we're all aware that everyone has different ideas and opinions right? Thinking about it now, that is pretty much something that I mention in every topic that I cover, but that is beside the point right now. Because we all have different ways of viewing things, it is unrealistic to expect for everyone to always agree. As I stated already this is totally fine as long as there is a mutual respect between the parties that are having the disagreement. For me personally, what I notice now is that so many have the belief that the way they see and view things is the right way, and that no else's viewpoint matters that much. Now this is something that we probably all do to an extent, but the problem settles in when people start denigrating others for having an opinion different than theirs. So in essence, people are only one sided when it comes to their views, and not only are they interested in hearing out what others have to say, but they would rather just bash them because of the differences of opinion. If you really think about it for a second, what does this practice sound like? It almost could be a form of the R word, and we all know what the R word refers to. Since I'm totally against it, I'm not going to put that word on here, but I'm pretty sure that most of you understand my point. Again, disagreements are always going to happen, but the problems settle in when people choose to make it personal when others don't agree with them.
Beyond just trying to be a more open minded and well rounded individual, there are numerous reasons why it is important to open yourself to the ideas of others. However, because of the point that I'm trying to make in this topic, I want to focus on what I personally deem to be the most important reason for keeping an open mind when it comes to the ideas that others may have. The word that I'm thinking of now is "tolerance". We all know what tolerance is and what it means, however, I looked up the official definition through Google and this is the result that followed. It reads that tolerance is the ability or willingness to tolerate something, in particular the existence of opinions or behavior that one does not necessarily agree with. This definition totally encompasses why I think it is important to keep yourself open to the ideas of others. Keeping an open mind to what other people think not only allows you the opportunity to learn something new; it helps greatly in teaching you how to be able to respect the views of others even when you may not agree with their views. Even in our own lives we likely have friends and family members that do things that we may not necessarily agree with, but despite having issues with some of the things they do or the way they choose to live, we tolerate them because we love them. Yes it is easier to tolerate the people close to you compared to a complete stranger, but the people that we're close to were also strangers at one point as well right? Just something to consider.
The main point that I'm trying to get people to take away from this is that everyone's views matter because we're all here on this playing field of life. Sure the playing field of life isn't always a leveled one for everyone, but we all have the ability to think and live however we choose. The way that I think or view certain things isn't the only way that life should be looked at, just like the way the next person thinks isn't. Yes, it matters because however I see thing is my own reality, but the next person has their own reality as well. Bashing and downing other people for not having the same views as you or anyone else is just plain wrong. It is totally okay to disagree with other people, but never believe that because you disagree with them that your viewpoint is the end all be all. A lot of this has to do the fact that the average person today would rather do more talking that listening. When you talk more than you choose to listen, you able to get your point out there, but you also don't allow room to listen to other people's views. Try to listen more to what other people are saying. I can't speak for anyone else, but I think you'd be surprised at how much you're able to learn when you open yourself up to the ideas that other people may have. From my perspective, working towards becoming a more tolerant person towards others is one of the most important forms of personal growth that an individual can experience.
Well we have arrived at the end of another topic brothers and sisters! Time to sign off once again, but thank you as always for those that came through for another installment of 'Brad H.'s Perspective'! As I always mention before ending my topics, I hope that there was some meaning and understanding that could be gained from this, as well as the other topics I address on here. If you have any comments or feedback on any topic, feel free to drop down in the comments. You can also hit me up on Twitter @BradrickH. I'm pretty excited for tonight and tomorrow being that it is the NBA's All-Star Weekend. For those that are basketball fans out there, I hope you all enjoy. Again, I want to give my thoughts to those that were affected by the school shooting in Florida. Beyond all of that, I hope everyone has great weekend and an even better week ahead. Take care everyone, and I'll see you all in the next one! Peace!
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