What Are You For?

Leaving the passive anger behind and taking a proactive stand.

Hello friends, and welcome to this week’s ponderings at The LifeWalk. I have to share with you, that when I first got the idea for this post, I was pretty excited about it. But, after I started writing, I knew I was getting into some touchy areas and it made me nervous. Very nervous. I’ve been following a very successful Substacker who often says that if you’re nervous about posting something, then it needs to be posted (I’m paraphrasing, but I think you get the gist).

So here it is, and here’s to taking a positive stand 🙌🏼

~Suzanne

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Telling the world you are anti-anything is only half the story. Anti-war. Anti-vaxx. Anti-abortion. Anti-terrorism. Anti-meat. We can be anti- just about anything.

But what are you for?

The missing piece in so many of the arguments of late is the flip side of being anti-everything. What do you stand for?

“I was once asked why I don't participate in anti-war demonstrations. I said that I will never do that, but as soon as you have a pro-peace rally, I'll be there.” ―Mother Teresa

By bringing the focus to what we stand for, we can bring more specific solutions to the table.

As Mother Theresa suggested, hold a pro-peace rally and get folks involved in solutions and alternatives to “war” rather than just stating your anti-war stance. Think about it, how many people do you know are pro-war? Nobody really wants war (except maybe those making money off it), so how do we solve the issues between countries without allowing ourselves to fall into the “default” solution?

Now I know that some might say that this political party or that one is pro-war because their actions seem to frequently put us at war. However, when we can flip the narrative and approach the real problem (oppression, for example) and not the symptom (war) we can find and apply real solutions.

So, as we enter this coming election season, when you find yourself proclaiming to be anti-something or someone, I challenge you, and all of us, to change that proclamation to being pro-something and offer a potential solution. The more options we have, the better chance we have of landing on something that may actually work.

So, what are you for?

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What I’m Reading This Week

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The word I would most like to erase from the English language