Offended By Your Offense

My best friend in the whole entire world…is Jewish. She’s my rock. When I am having a hard time, am ill, feel lonely, and sometimes just because…she prays for me.

And I am not offended.

My family is part of a youth organization that meets at a Catholic Church. We are not Catholic. The members of this group are dear friends to me. They pray for my family often.

And I am not offended.

I have friends that are Muslim. I absolutely adore them. They are precious to me. Guess what? They pray for us.

And I am not offended.

I have many beautiful friends and family members who are agnostic or atheist. They frequently send me their mojo and thoughts.

And I am not offended.

I have friends who are spiritual (as specified by them). They beseech the universe on my behalf.

And I am not offended.

Yet, here’s an interesting fact for you. I lose more followers on Sundays than any other day of the week. I receive more hate mail, negative feedback, and backlash on Sundays than any other day of the week. Why? Because on Sundays I offer up a little prayer for the aviation community written after the manner of my own personal belief. I pick a topic I know people in this community are struggling with and I share my prayer for you with you to hopefully encourage someone who needs it.

And you are offended.

I’m going to be frank with you: Your offense is offensive. It’s also misplaced and ignorant. Here’s why. I’m not trying to force you to convert to anything. I am not forcing you to be anything you are not. I am just loving on you. The underlying concept is simple…if you say you believe something (i.e. in this case that prayer is powerful) and you say you love someone (i.e. I fiercely love the members of this community) but don’t subsequently put that belief into action regarding those people you claim to love…well, you are either a hypocrite or a liar or both.

So when my Jewish, Muslim, Hindu, Catholic, Christian, atheist, agnostic, spiritual friends send me love, mojo, prayer, rosaries, and happy universal thoughts… I am grateful. Not offended. In fact, I consider it a huge compliment. Because it has nothing to do with what I, the receiver, believe and everything to do with them, the sender, loving and caring for me enough to cover me with love in whatever fashion they believe. And the exact same thing is reciprocally true when I pray for you.

When my Jewish, Muslim, Hindu, Catholic, Christian, atheist, agnostic, spiritual friends send me love, mojo, prayer, rosaries, and happy universal thoughts… I am grateful. Click To Tweet

This community is made up of people from all around the world with a vast array of different origins, different skin colors, different faiths, different circumstances, and different gender preferences. And I love every single one of you. Just. Like. You. Are.

I just adore (**insert sarcastic tones) it when someone tosses out the ‘not inclusive’ card at me. How. Cute. Because it honestly doesn’t get any more inclusive than this community. I never ask people to pretend to be something they are not in order to be part of my life or this community. I don’t have some lengthy rule list you have to adhere to or questionnaire you have to fill out in order to participate. I ask one thing: that you are kind and respectful to each other. That’s it!

I openly welcome and respect and love all the people in my life. I never ask anyone to be something that they are not (well, unless you are an inherently unkind person whose only joy in life is trolling others, I guess). I love learning about you and your uniqueness. How you think. What you believe. Who you are. Just the beautiful way you are.

I think it is perfectly fair to expect reciprocity.

This community (and beyond it in my personal circle of friends as well) is so incredibly rich in diversity that it would blow your mind if you saw the actual data. I, for one, am humbled by it. And I am so incredibly grateful for it because every beautiful person adds something unique and very needed to this life and to my perspective. I try to live life in technicolor, not just surrounding myself with people who look, think, believe, and good grief pray just like me. I feel really sad for those who exist in echo chambers, honestly. You are missing out on so much beauty.

But if by ‘inclusive’ you mean that YOU want ME to pretend to be someone or something I’m not because you cannot openly welcome or love or respect someone who doesn’t look, think, believe, and good grief pray (or not) just like you (on a privately owned website nonetheless)…well, surely you can grasp the straight up irony and hypocrisy in that. By the definition of inclusion, you embrace the very essence of the thing which you accuse me and proclaim so loudly to loathe. I don’t think the problem is mine at all, actually.

Here’s the thing…yes, I try to share my personal prayer on Sundays with my followers once or twice per month. Out of the 60+ posts per month that I create, approximately TWO of them are prayers. That’s about 3.33333333333333333333333333% of my content, for the mathematical record. I do it to address issues my followers are struggling with in a positive, perspective shifting manner, and they are generally well received. I have even had atheist followers tell me they like to read them because it gives them some alternative perspective to ponder. In fact, that is super cool to me!

You are free to read them however you see fit; as a prayer, as an introspection, as a way to think good thoughts over your spouse, or good grief not at all if you hate them that much. Skip it and move on to the next 96.666666666666666666% of my content filled with memes, quotes, blogs, funny stories, or personal revelations that I have posted this month. Whatever. I call that scroll don’t troll, by the way. It would be impossible to write anything that everyone likes or relates to in a community this large and diverse, and I am not even going to kill myself trying. So for goodness’ sake pick and choose what works for you and what doesn’t and move on.

By the way, I have NEVER and will NEVER tell a single person in this community that they cannot post their prayers, thoughts, universe wishes, or mojo in the comments or on the community page for that matter after the manner in which they believe or are most comfortable In fact, I welcome it. It’s not my fault if you do take advantage of that freedom.

But I also will NEVER allow you to tramp down my freedom beneath the heel of your unjustified sensitives either. Uh-uh. No way. Nada. Forget about it. So here’s what I’m going to do…be me. Period. And that means telling you my candid life experiences, making you laugh with relevant memes, encouraging you to love your spouses well, teaching you to F.L.Y., and yes, occasionally sharing my prayers for this community because I love the people that compose it. If that means that this page isn’t for you…

Well, I am offended by your offense. And you are welcome to leave and go live happily ever after in your safe echo chamber. By the way…this is not an airport terminal. No need to announce your departure when you go. I’m so over it. However, I’ll admit I am also a little sad for you because it’s 100% your loss. You will be missing out on something pretty special here…a huge community of diverse aviation people who love one another, encourage one another, and accept one another just the way they are.

To the rest of you, amazing, kind, beloved members of this community, thank you for being the beautiful colours that fill my life’s canvas and for allowing me to be a small part of yours as well. I will gladly accept all the mojo, prayers of all religions, happy thoughts, rosaries, well wishes, and universal beseeching you have to offer up on my behalf. And I will continue to pray for you.

No offense necessary.

I love you, aviation family.

Angelia (a fellow, pretty darned inclusive Pilot Wife who prays for you because I love you)