Sorry I didn’t indent to submit the above.

These are such crazy times

“The Stoic philosophers taught that if you choose not to be offended by others’ actions, you will not be. An offense is up to your interpretation. Instead, treat others with kindness and assert your autonomy.”

The stoics were saying that to be offended requires participation. Thus the one offended ought to ask themselves why they are feeling offended. Any answer requires a good deal of self knowledge.  Being offended because you disagree with someone is not a good reason to be offended and likely not the real reason.  Taking offence tends to be personal. I feel offended because what someone said or did was experienced as a attack on my sense of self, identify, ego….

In a better climate when someone is offended because of something you wrote a response saying that you are sorry that they feel offended as that was not your intent might be enough to smooth things over and you might even be able to ask them to explain what part of what you said offended them.  If its a disagreement you could have a dialog about that. If they felt what you said was a attack on their sense of self you could review your statements to see if your wording could have been interpreted that way and correct any unintentional misunderstandings,  however their isn’t much more you can do about that. In this case it is a opportunity of the offended to take a inward look at themselves to determine what they are attaching their sense of self with and if that truly represents them. If they can do that they would be better able to enter back into dialog.

These are difficult times for dialog. Everyone is offended it seems all the time. Its hard. When my family and friends defend, support and give their loyalty and support to a Man who’s character I don’t think deserve such loyalty its hard not to feel and look at them differently. I’d like to say I could do so with compassion while still standing up for what I think and value. I like to think I try but if I’m honest I tend towards being silenced. I suspect what is happening to our society is not about politics.

We tend to create what we fear when we are blind to our shadows and it takes work to shine the light on ourselves let along for others to see. I am at a loss