When It Explodes In Your Face

You're never expecting it. You post an innocent picture or rant on facebook, expecting it to get the likes that most of the stuff you normally post receives, when all of a sudden you find people getting angry in your comments. What do you do? How do you fix this?

This happened to me to a mild degree during the whole Chick-Fil-A fiasco - where people were taking sides about supporting homosexuals or freedom of speech because of certain comments that the COO, Dan Cathy, made. Another writer posted an image with directions on how to make a Chick-Fil-A sandwich at home if you no longer wanted to go to the restaurant. I thought it would be a good idea to hit the share button for any of my friends who might have wanted the information. I didn't post my opinion on the issue or even write anything in the comments, but several people posted heatedly, one of which wasn't even on my friends list at all.

I decided to stay silent and felt guilty, since some of the people arguing were authors who had been kind to me in the past. My heart told me to defend them. My mind told me to stay out of it and it would blow over.

Expressing my opinions has been an issue that's been hard for me to deal with as of late. When you speak your mind, there are always people who don't want to hear what you have to say. It didn't help that there was a thread recently on a forum I love to post on about a successful author and how she's kept most of her opinions to herself. She shows kindness to other authors and readers, which is why so many of us love her and read her books.

Me, on the other hand, I had expressed a strong opinion previously in the exact thread this was posted in. I immediately felt like an idiot and toned it done through editing my post. I've been nervous about expressing strong opinions ever since.

My parents and I have discussed the Chick-Fil-A issue in private and just so you know, we were on opposing sides of the argument. I won't say what my opinion was, but I will say we were able to love and respect each other anyway.

I also want to say that regardless of how I feel about Chick-Fil-A, I don't ever want to be viewed in a similar manner as Chick-Fil-A. You may not like the genres or style I write in. If not, that's okay. But I'd hate for you to buy my book just because you liked one of my opinions or refuse to buy it because you disagreed with me. It's about my products, not who I am as a person.

I'd love to have readers of all religious beliefs, political opinions, races, sexualities, and genders. You're all special and will teach me something different through interactions with you.