The Fear of Saying What Needs to Be Said
Sometimes we don’t stay quiet because we have nothing to say.
We stay quiet because we’re afraid of how people will react when we say it.
Some thoughts are comfortable. Others aren’t.
There are questions people don’t want to hear, conversations people don’t want to have, and ideas that can make us uncomfortable simply because they challenge the way we’ve always looked at something.
But should the possibility of making someone uncomfortable keep us from speaking?
Not every uncomfortable thought is an attack. Not every difficult question is disrespectful. Sometimes, asking the question is simply the beginning of understanding something differently.
You don’t have to agree with everything you hear.
You don’t even have to like it.
But maybe we shouldn’t be so afraid of hearing something that makes us think.
Sometimes the conversation we’re most afraid to have is the one we need to have.
