Advice I was looking for, myself…but advice I’m hopeful, is helpful, to all out there rt now as so many are fighting for causes they believe in – at a time when there appear to be more “sides” & thick lines btwn them, than ever before.
Maybe it’s bc in the age of social media, everyone can have an opinion?!? Maybe it seems for that reason that, no matter your fight, & no matter what “side” you’re on, & no matter how “right” you feel you are, there seems to be this loud mob of other folks that seem ignorant, tone deaf, out of touch, etc?!
Personally, my most glaring social fight every day, is for the normalization of the MH conversation – BC OF my own lived experience. It doesn’t mean I don’t have opinions on other topics…or that I don’t hurt at other things where I am “on one side or the other” in terms of ideology. However, we all have a certain amount of energy to fight for what we believe is right. Here is why this quote’s so helpful to me (& hopefully to you) – energy.
In the past reading & then sharing what I saw in response to @darrenrovell’s post abt Charles Barkley’s comments (that NBA players can’t get to a “dark place” bc of the $ & means they have), would’ve torn me up. Seeing (what I believe to be) very ignorant & hurtful comments about: “the weakness of those who speak out”…”that they don’t have real problems”…”that MH is a fabrication & an excuse” would’ve brought “water in my boat.” My energy therefore would’ve started to drain…& I’d be at risk for “sinking,” myself. Heck, it DID happen to me 5yrs ago.
But then I learned. I didn’t learn FROM this quote. But it’s a great example of what I came to understand. Those voices & that chatter & those comments – I don’t “let them in my boat.” I don’t let them hurt me.
Instead, they’re in the water arnd my boat, & I’m gonna keep my energy & work to advocate & change minds, instead of sinking.
My hope for anyone else out there fighting for causes – is that this helps: that you don’t let the voices & chatter of others be the water that gets in your boat & sinks you. Instead, that you use the “water” arnd you to row harder/faster.
