Passionate Values

Recently during a conversation, a friend described me as being passionate about my beliefs. This was stated as a compliment, and I took it as one even though it made me feel a bit uncomfortable.

Over the next few days, I reflected on this statement "you're passionate about your beliefs" and finally understood why it made me uncomfortable. I can certainly understand why someone would think I'm passionate about my beliefs, but I don't think I am.

I am very passionate about my values but not so much about my beliefs. I am fairly certain this is where some readers are ready to shout "semantics", but it's not, really. My beliefs are subject to change when the facts supported by research warrant the change. My values, on the other hand, are much harder, some impossible, to convince me to change.

I have cultivated my values over the course of my life in a way that informs my life, how I live in the world, and how I interact with others. I am proudly passionate about those values. 

My beliefs, also cultivated over the course of my life, have changed and morphed as I've learned more. I never hesitate to change a belief that is proven incorrect.

For example, like many people, I believed for a long time that I had to eat meat
to be healthy. I never particularly liked meat, but I found ways to make it palatable, sort of. I thought I had to eat it, so I tried to make myself like it and often pretended I did. I thought there was something wrong with me because I didn't particularly like it. Then in the 1990s, I met a woman who couldn't eat meat because meat would exacerbate a kidney condition she had. Her life partner joined her for moral support. As far as I could tell, he was healthy without meat. Around the same time, I also met another person who was vegan for ethical reasons but was healthy. Meeting these people combined with advice from doctors on health issues inspired me to start researching nutrition and nutrition's relationship to health. Over many years, my research pointed not only to evidence that one didn't need meat to be healthy but that often meat was antithetical to good health, so I changed my belief.

Giving up meat brought me in line with my values of love, kindness, health,

compassion, holism, etc. allowing me to feel less conflicted about my choices. Eating meat had always felt cruel and damaging to me, so knowing I didn't need meat brought me more in line with the kind of life I wanted to lead.

I have used this same process to address many other beliefs I've held in my life. I've examined my beliefs about religion, the publishing industry, history, politics, relationships, marriage, money, the environment, and a slew of other things. In some cases, I've strengthened my beliefs, but more often than not I've challenged them and changed at least some parts of them.

Researching the reasons behind my beliefs has helped me grow into my best self. On the rare occasion that learning the truth made me feel threatened or under attack, the feeling hasn't lasted long. The truth has opened the world to me in ways I never expected. Learning more about the world has offered me opportunities to connect with others. Connecting with others has helped me better understand both our commonalities and our differences. Understanding that our commonalities and our differences can lead to both creating problems and creating solution has encouraged me to look at both through a more nuanced lens than before. Learning the truth has allowed me to see where I can be more useful in the world and helpful to the betterment of the world because one of my most sacred goals is to leave the world just a little bit better for my having existed, or as Beyoncé put it "Left this world a little better just because I was here" in her song, I Was Here.

To me, a little bit better means more connected, more just, more compassionate, kinder, more honest, and more equal for starters.

Equality often drives my quest for change, but all of my other values drive how I seek that equality.

I am unapologetically passionate about challenging my beliefs on a regular basis because that's how I better myself in order to better contribute to society and the world. Challenging my beliefs with research and science allows me bring my beliefs in better alignment with my values and to seek to use my values to achieve my goals while striving to be my best self.

I am unapologetically passionate about my values.

I understand that to most people including my friend, it appears I am passionate about my beliefs because my beliefs are often the external expression of the values I am most passionate about.

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