📅 Thought for today:
‘Anything designed to be inoffensive isn’t worth your time — life itself is pretty offensive, ending as it does with death.’
— Holly Lisle
#thoughtfortoday #offense #offensive #inoffensive #offence #existential #timesuck #therapist
Whilst I would try not to deliberately offend someone, some offence is taken whether I intend it or not.
That form of words interests me, because as a therapist, “taken offence” is not unusual as a presenting issue.
We live in a world where we can find as much offence as we want to, and more besides.
How we deal with it is the key issue.
I am prompted to these musings by yet another story in the UK of a warring pair of neighbours where a simple transgression caused offence and has resulted, years later, in a £200,000 legal bill. Over fallen fruit and a wasp allergy.
As John Cleese said, “The idea that you have to be protected from any kind of uncomfortable emotion is what I absolutely do not subscribe to.”
However, who will teach our children how to deal with discomfort, what is offensive and that some level of unpleasantness will be the norm for all their lives?
Taking offence where it was not intended is surely a form of self-harm especially if it is allowed to fester and grow?
