Monday, April 18, 2011

O is for Open

Yes, open. I mean that to be painted with a pretty broad brush, too. There are all kinds of reasons to be open, and not the least of which is that I believe it can greatly cut down on anger problems. People who aren’t open to ideas and different ways of life are often times angry people. An open mind is a healthy mind.

Religious people come to mind first. And I’m not talking about your average Sunday church-goer who happens to believe what they believe. I’m speaking of the angry ones who’ll literally de-friend you if your belief system differs from theirs in any way, and who’ll speak angrily about other people because of it. Example: “Nobody’s building a mosque in my Christian nation! Nobody!” We live in the melting pot. It’s literally called that. And we live here by choice, although some folks don’t realize that. If you can’t handle other races, creeds, and religions hanging about, I suggest you pack a bag and look elsewhere for residency.

Closed-minded people are generally not accepting of new ideas and things. They usually have “strong opinions” (read: asshole) on various subjects and would be drawn and quartered before changing their outlooks on them. I’m pretty opinionated myself on certain issues (read: asshole) but I try hard to be an all-around okay guy. Tattoos and body piercing, for example, are not my bag, baby. But I understand that some folks really like them, and I don’t judge them one bit. In fact, a large portion of my friends are tatted and pierced. If my mind wasn’t of the open variety, I could really have missed out on some good times with some good people.

Opening your mind to things greatly expands your idea center, as well. I believe it also increases your self-esteem because you will likely succeed more, due to trying new things. For instance, if more people knew how to do little things like change their oil or an alternator, effectively check for spyware on their computers and remedy them when found, and attempt to fix minor broken things, a lot of money would be saved and people would feel better about themselves. The self-defeating attitude of, “I don’t even touch stuff like that, because I’d probably screw it up worse. I leave things to the experts,” just feeds their already closed-up minds. Try a little something here and there; who knows, you just might surprise yourself.

Open your minds, open your hearts, quit using your brains so much in decision making and let your feelings take over once in a while. It really is freeing. I mean, being intelligent only gets you so far before your feelings must come into play. Look at Hitler and Charles Manson – both men highly intelligent, but they possessed rotten, cruel hearts and so their decision-making wasn’t so great at times. Their agendas were that of close-minded men. Don’t be one of those guys (read: asshole). Open up. There’s some cool stuff out there.

7 comments:

Eliza said...

Hi my name is Eliza and I'm an asshole. I am one of those who is firm in her beliefs but also firm in believing that those beliefs are not to be forced onto others. I try to be open to people, ideas and activities, that lead to a more well rounded life. I am not open to those that do harm to themselves and people around them.

Unknown said...

I agree! Being open minded and even questioning things leads to a much more diverse and entertaining life.

Langley Cornwell said...

Right! Excellent post. Open is a wonderful word in all of it's meanings.

I’m A-Z Blogging on Langley Writes about Writing and Langley’s Rich and Random Life

Christina said...

Awesome post, D. The world could use a little more openness.

Anonymous said...

You ROCK! I'm pretty much a live-and-let-live kind of girl. Just don't hurt anybody, and I'm cool with you.

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pbquig said...

Derk, you've said it all. I often have to remember to be open minded toward close minded people and realize that some hurt or problem made them that way. You're on my list, I love this blog.

Pam
Pirate Knitting

Theresa Wiza said...

I am opinionated and open minded. However, I have no patience for, nor am I tolerant of, people whose minds are so closed they can't think outside of their self-imposed box. Great post. http://myheartblogstoyou.blogspot.com/