Now't so Queer as Folk

There is a saying in good ole blighty that goes something like "There's now't so queer as folk"for those of you who have no idea what that means (don't worry it's a Northern saying,most people don't) it means that there is nothing stranger than people. Boy! did I find that 0ut this week.
It started with a visit to Melbourne and ended with a facebook debate. Never one to shirk from controversy I posted my feelings about 12WBT on my blog, I didn't expect too much from it ( my blog averages 60 - 100 views pre post)  Fellow travellers how wrong was I ... nothing much eventuated from the blog until someone posted a comment to my link.. then all hell broke loose ...  hours later and 60+ comments to the link, 8 comments on the blog, numerous personal messages ( both of support and declaring me the next spawn of satan) The admins of the fb group (not fans of my blog post) removed the post.

So fellow travellers I have been sitting here pondering my navel and asking the question, Why did my post elicit such a response?
As always ( being the brilliant person I am) I came up with my own answer..
There's Nowt so Queer as Folk...
As travellers we arrived on this road with scars and baggage. The life lessons we have endured that led us to this point have not always been positive ones and more often than not we comforted our pain and insecurities with food... The very thing that got us here in the first place is the very reason that my blog post fuelled such an intense reaction.
We look at things, we watch things, we hear things and
WE TAKE IT PERSONALLY!!!
No remark for us can ever be a throwaway remark, no comment without scrutiny, no look without analysis. Our experiences have taught us to be wary, we expect negative comments about ourselves, because that is what we are used to, that is what life has taught us. That my fellow travellers is how we live. Waiting for the next attack on us.
This road is also about acceptance, both of ourselves and others. Accepting that we are worthy of praise, we are worthy of our own opinions (no matter how far outside the accepted parameters they are) We are worthy of being happy.

This has been a fractured post fellow travellers but I think what I am trying to say is that sometimes we can spend our life worrying about whether a remark or a look is aimed at us when what we should be doing is looking forward. My last words have to be the following quote from Edmund Lee which I have attached to my 12wbt profile;


"Surround yourself with the dreamers and the doers, the believers and the thinkers, but most of all surround yourself with those who see the greatness within you, even when you don't see it yourself"