Some Final Thoughts for January

Well, we've reached the end of the blog-a-day month that was January, and I've more or less succeeded in the goal I set at the start of the month/year. I'm not going to post anything now until the 7th of Feb. From then on, I'll treat you to an insight into my thought at least three times a week (further details to be decided later). Since we've reached a bit of a milestone, I thought I should try and round things up for you.

The thing I realised is that nearly all the issues raised (by me) in this Month of Blogging could have been solved if people listened to each other more. There would be no homophobia, as people would listen to the gay's accounts of being gay, and would stop assuming that it's all soul-less lust. There would be no Islamophobia or Christianophobia, as people would consider what individual Christians and Muslims actually believed, rather than what they assume they believe. Both Labour's and the Tories' programmes for government would improve drastically if they considered why people disagree with them. And so it goes on.

The reason no-one listens to anyone is that we constantly assume that our opinion is the only one that matters, or that our opinion is somehow vastly more knowledgeable than anyone else's opinion. I know I inevitably seem that way when I blog, because I'm trying to get my thoughts across without rambling too much, but ultimately, I accept that my point of view is not the only one that exists. I'm not only open to debate- I love debate, provided there's no emotional investment made by either party. Considering what someone else thinks, assessing the reasons they think what they think, and adapting your own views to fit into this new perspective of the world is among the most valuable things we can do as human beings. And a lot of the time, we do do it. But I think we'd all appreciate seeing more of it.

So, that's my attempt to sum up January. We stand on the brink of twenty-eight brand new days. Best of luck with doing whatever you want to do with them, and I'll see you around before this month of February gets into full swing.

Until then, sayronara!