A Moment of (No) Opinion

I scroll through social media and see how everyone has something to say.

About drunk drivers.

About public figures crossing lines.

About… everything, really.

And I catch myself thinking more and more often:

“What do I actually think about this?”

There was a time when I, too, felt called to make the world a better place through my words —

to take a stand, to climb the proverbial barricades.

Now, I feel that urge less.

Sometimes I even worry that I’ve lost my drive.

But that’s not it.

It’s not that I don’t care anymore — far from it.

When I let myself sink into what I read or hear,

I feel so much inside.

Thoughts like:

“What if it were my child? My friend? My partner?”

“What if this happened here, to us?”

Those thoughts aren’t foreign to me at all.

But… most of the time, it’s not my child.

And it’s not a situation I’m personally involved in.

The situation is usually painful enough already.

So what does my opinion really add?

Isn’t empathy often more valuable

than yet another opinion, judgment, or extra dose of outrage?

In reality, I notice how opinions pile up —

opinions on opinions,

judgments about judgments —

until we drift so far from the actual issue

that we end up fighting with and against each other.

And that’s how we lose our way.

We don’t solve anything —

if anything, we create new problems.

Including one of the biggest: polarization.

So I’ve learned to hold my opinion back

(and when I forget, life reminds me again).

I save it for moments when it truly adds something.

Of course, I still form opinions on the inside — naturally.

But speaking them out loud rarely adds value.

Quite the opposite, in fact.

What truly matters is acting on what we believe.

Contributing through our behaviour

to a kinder, better world.

And that can begin with our words, too —

by saving our opinions for the moments

when they can genuinely make a difference,

and choosing them carefully.

The rest, we can carry in silence —

and turn into action instead.

Maybe real change starts right there:

in choosing, for once,

to have (no) opinion.

⸻

💡 In a world where everyone has something to say, maybe wisdom lies in knowing when not to.

With love,

Maaike