What Do You Reflect?

What do you reflect to the world? What do you represent? What impression do you give others about who you are and what you stand for? I have friends who have a ‘fuck ‘em’ attitude about what others think. I understand very well hating to feel harshly judged by society’s narrow standards and knowing that I always came up very short. There was a time when my attitude was against presenting myself as anything but my own anti-social self. Now, I feel differently. I don’t know if it’s because I believe in things that are larger than myself and my family or if I just (finally) grew out of the adolescent phase of needing to rebel against society as the ‘controlling parent’ but I am very aware of what people are learning about what I believe in through my appearance and behavior. I am a Quaker, feminist, political progressive, mother, wife, daughter, friend. I’m also a cynical anarchist at heart. There are still days when I want to scream at all the, as Elton John was quoted in the media lately, describing those who follow a narrow belief system and use it to judge and condemn others, “Hateful lemmings.” But lately, I’ve been trying to be aware that if I come across as angry or anti-social or ‘scary’, I’m shutting down the possibility of ever having any kind of dialog with the majority of the population. If people see my attitude as threatening, they will not care about my belief that we are all equal and we all deserve equal representation by our government. If I come across as hostile, average people will not listen to my reasons for opposing this, and all, war; even if my opposition is rooted in the teachings of Jesus.