A little over a year ago, while having a girl’s night with my friends, my mind got sidetracked from the actual conversation and had the following realization. “There are some topics within the vast array of universal, essential, and transcendental world issues that demand not just an opinion; but a well-thought, informed, deeply reflected eloquent and respectful opinion.”
With some topics, you cannot just wing it. With some topics, reading the latest news, or the trending Facebook article is utterly not enough.
Some topics deserve a higher level of attention, conscious research, mindful personal conclusions. Not because we want to necessarily, influence or convince others of our opinion. But because the topics are so important to us and are so intertwined with our values and purpose, that we absolutely cannot improvise or give half-assed answers.
Feminism is one of those topics for me. That night with my girlfriends, I found myself talking about feminism and giving my honest opinion. It was nothing more than that, it was just my honest opinion at that exact moment. And it felt shallow somehow. If this is such an important topic for me, then it deserves the very best of me.
As part of my 2020 goals, I made a commitment to myself. I would choose my topics, my causes, and give them my best. I started a class a week ago about Feminism and Social Justice. Another reason is that there is a chapter in my book that touches upon one’s causes and the power of “respectfully disagreeing.”
There are topics where I do not want to just opine, suggest, or remark. There are topics where I want to enrich, contribute, and act.
What are the topics that deserve your best? What are your causes?
Em and the Shelf 