“Forgiveness and Intention” are themes of Richard Armitage’s heartfelt message for Stop Cyberbullying Day, June 18, 2016 Gratiana Lovelace (Post #925)

The exquisitely talented British actor Richard Armitage’s (left)  in his June 17, 2016 Stop Cyberbullying Day 2016  message for his CyberSmile Foundation blog post, seemed to me to be distilled down to his essay’s final thoughts:

“Never underestimate your words. Use them carefully and for the better; if, like me, it’s the kind of society you believe in.”

My reflection upon Richard’s message focuses on the concept that our words have power and meaning—and not always the meaning we think, nor the meaning that we intend.  Our perceptions and others’ perceptions can pull and sometimes distort a sentence or phrase’s meaning.
But whose meaning is the right meaning?  Is that ever easy to determine?  And is it really necessary to determine the right meaning, when there could be multiple right and wrong meanings—as Richard inferred?

It is not easy– nor necessary, in my experience–to determine the rightness nor wrongness of messages and their meaning.  And therein lies the crux of the matter.  Peoples’ experiences, knowledge systems, beliefs, cultures, opinions, and society shape how they interpret their world.  It is their context, their lens within which they perceive the world.  And their contexts shape how they interpret the messages they receive, with some broad examples of potential opposing viewpoints listed below:

• Where one person sees grace and beauty in a friendly smile, another person might think that characterization naïve and wonder what ulterior motive lurks hidden beneath that smile.

• Where one person values and appreciates an individual’s heartfelt sentiments shared with genuine sincerity, another person might ask why should their thoughts count any more than anyone else’s thoughts.

• And finally, where one person’s intent is to uplift, support, and inspire, another person might view that as condescending—as if they take offense to that person’s positivity as somehow being an insult to them. *shakes head*

And when others find fault—or a lack of perfected perfection in anyone’s or even in Richard Armitage’s personal expressions of his voice—I have to think, so what?  Nobody’s perfect.  Thank goodness!  Ha!.  Nor can they—or Richard– be all things to all people.

I have to say, I admire Richard Armitage for continuing to put his thoughts out there on Twitter, with his CyberSmile Foundation Ambassadorship, and elsewhere with his charitable fundraising and social causes awareness efforts.  I believe that he is being bold and brave, when others have yet to find their own voice—let alone, express it.  Or in the simple act of him expressing his beliefs, that Richard unknowingly inspires others to consider finding their means of personal expression.

So perhaps regardless of what Richard Armitage or anyone says about their personal beliefs—and how people interpret it as they parse the wording and such—I am glad that person, in this case Richard Armitage, shared their sentiments, especially when they are sentiments embodying a hope for greater understanding between individuals.

And sometimes we might hold hopeful views that seem to  be in the minority—for our general vicinity. But popularity was never my litmus test for the merit of a viewpoint or opinion.  Even if there is only one solitary individual stating their positive beliefs or expressing an opinion of hope, the journey to improving oneself and our society begins with one voice expressing their viewpoint.

Obviously, I’m not including hate speech rhetoric and messages as what I would label as hopeful.   The whole ad hominin argument construction fallacy and other fallacies sometimes seen in less than well reasoned diatribes—are diatribes ever well reasoned? Ha!–is a post for another day.

Yet when a chorus of positive voices share their hope and wish for greater understanding, consideration, and sensitivity between and toward each other?  Then perhaps the world will be a better place that we as individuals collectively envision for our futures.

Or once again, as Richard Armitage said in his Stop Forgiveness and Intention CyberSmile Stop Cyberbullying Day essay:

“Never underestimate your words. Use them carefully and for the better; if, like me, it’s the kind of society you believe in.”

Until then, we can embrace our respective nuanced understandings and interpretations of others messages meanings and intents—one Richard Armitage tweet, untweet, selfie,  or blog post at a time.  *wink*  And please forgive me for taking a full page (772 words) to express myself.  *winks again*

P.S.  And I love Richard Armitage’s  new Selfie that appeared with his
essay! (my color edit, right)  Richard’s face infused with joy perfectly complements his essay’s intended (my interpretation) positive thoughts.