Get off the fence
You want to know what the biggest lie ever told is? If someone starts a sentence with “No offence, but”
We have grown to be a community that’s so sensitive to the point where we almost always take offence with pretty much anything that doesn’t fit in our comfort zone. Looking into my very overweight Dachshund’s eyes (his name is Buddy), I wonder why we can’t be more like animals. Only get offended by things that directly affect our lives like another dog getting the treats before him, although he really could do without the treats. But we as humans have developed a very lightly veiled sense of entitlement when it comes to our wants and needs and if anybody else disagrees then we get out the war paint and ready ourselves for a full scale assault on them. I’m also guilty of feeling offended, like everyone has been.
When I released my first album with my band, most of our friends and families gave rave reviews and feedback was mostly positive across the spectrum; except for this one guy. He bashed the music, the front cover, the name of the songs and even the faces of the members for “looking stupid” as he eloquently put it. Of course the first thing I thought is “Who is he to think differently than everyone I know?” and I felt offended. I couldn’t understand why he felt so strongly and after a back and forth with emails, I realised that he was just very opinionated and I had to accept that there will always be someone who feels and sees things differently.
At a recent conference we got into the discussion of who found abortion advertising offensive and it boiled down to someone only seeing one side and then getting offended and seldom looking at things from the other side of the spectrum. But enough about controversial topics like abortion, religion and politics; we’ll save that for next time. As I grew up and matured I discovered one thing; Offence cannot be given, only taken. You have the power to choose what offends you and what doesn’t. You can choose to try and understand the situation or you can be “that guy” and attack with opinions. No matter what you choose, life goes on and people go on as well so try and be a nice human being, it’s not that hard. I think Buddy is getting offended that I’m not sharing my sandwich with him so I just told him “No offence Buddy, you’re too fat to have a bite”.
