Posted 5:14 PM by Blah blah

By Esther:

Don't Mistake Me For a Drama Queen

all this free time has got me thinking, lately. thinking about different issues as well as thinking about my thinking about different issues. yeah. i'll explain what i mean, in a minute. :) if you don't know, already, i am also a co-writer for someone else's collaborative journal, called tiger cafe. everyone on there is an intelligent, thoughtful, and yes, somewhat opinionated. i had been an absent blogger for the duration of my Series 7 studying binge, but in the course of a day, i posted twice. you should check the site once in awhile--there are quite interesting conversations about different topics going on all the time.

but back to being opinionated...because, after all, that's what i am. i have a lot to say. meaning: i'm opinionated. and, i have a lot to say about that. being opinionated. so many people use that adjective in a negative way. "Oh, you're so opinionated." as in, why don't you just be? in this day and age of acceptance and tolerance, being opinionated could perhaps be misconstrued as being judgmental. what is that?

i think a lot of the reason why i changed my major from economics to political science was that i related a lot more to the people in my poli sci classes. i shared that deeper passion in my classes with the poli sci majors than i could justify finishing classes that i just absolutely hated to take because they were too theoretical and non-applicable. so, my minor became a major, and since i still wanted to go into the financial field, i defaulted my chances on finding a job in that field on my work experience. and it worked. i enjoyed a thorough majority of my classes and felt a camaraderie with my classmates--that i wasn't crazy for caring about certain issues or even wanting to change things about what was going on, around me. it opened my eyes to a lot of things whereas normally you wouldn't even think to question it because you were born to accept it and figure it was the best system since it existed. i consider myself privileged--my education was fully paid for, i didn't have to worry about food on the table, my parents are still together, etc. even though i am privileged, i believe i was even more privileged to have had my eyes opened to the different issues and to form educated opinions about them.

i mean, again--what is it about being opinionated? i don't think that there is a certain type of person who tends to be more opinionated than the next person, or more involved with certain issues politically than the next. actually, i take it back. i think it has a lot to do with your upbringing. sometimes, there are just situations you were put in where you have had to deal with a lot more than you would like to. and you would like to change it, somehow. or, it could even be a loved one or a close friend that has had to deal with certain issues, and you would like to change that, as well. could it be true that people who have been content with most things in their lives are the most indifferent? NOT to say that this is a bad thing. after all, content is good. does this make me incontent? THAT would be a bad thing. anyhoo, i'll let you comment on that. ;)

while you're at it, take my friend raymond's personality test. i scored a 10--meaning i am exuberantly happy?

sometimes, though, i find it rather intriguing about what it is that gives meaning to everyone's lives. haha, okay. i have a confession to make. last night i was watching MTV's True Life: I'm a Groupie. i mean--these girls get bent on attaining attention from remotely famous people. THIS is the meaning to their lives. i mean, i was just flabbergasted. i couldn't begin to think about what it means to find meaning in doing that sort of thing. quite interesting, really.

okay, but i am getting off track. being opinionated, right? does that make me judgmental? i think my ex thought i was the most judgmental person, EVER. like, ever, ever. i think it was always hard for him to understand how i operate, or what was going on inside my mind. i think it was Ralph Waldo Emerson who once said, "To believe your own thought, to believe that what is true for you in your private heart is true for all men, — that is genius." i really don't know what can encompass a justification for my trains of thought more. forming educated opinions, to me, on relevant issues, gives meaning to the normal humdrum of life. it does not mean that you are condemning everybody who thinks differently. all the more credit to those who have taken the time to assess their independent experiences and thought processes to form their own opinions.

am i totally off-track? ...i guess that's your opinion, isn't it? hee hee.

*e
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Off-track, Esther? No way. Good for being the host of your own show like Ricki Lake? Yes! I like and respect that you care about social issues and like to ponder them. I do too...not as much as I used to. That's why I stay politically involved too. I feel one of government's major roles is to step in and care about those things business has no time or incentive to care about. Thinking about and participating in social issues is how I can feel connected to the broader society.

Socrates: "The unexamined life is not worth living." We need art, philosophy, and science to give shape, pattern, and relief to our random lives. That's why I prefer talking philosophy to religion. I also love that quote from Ralph Waldo Emerson's essay "Self-Reliance." He's one of my favorite writers. I'm stealing this entry for Tiger Cafe!