I am not a smart person but I am a thoughtful person. I have learned, through my thoughtfulness, that I am very opinionated. I have also learned, in my ponderings of government, space invasion, and emotions, I have discovered that I value a person’s ability to follow through.

Like a great golf swing, a good follow through is critical. It is something that that defines the swing, almost as much as following through with your actions defines someone’s character.

I was reminded of this fact today. I remembered how important someone’s follow through was to my opinion of them. I had been, rather blind, to someone’s lack of action. I don’t think I’ve ever been so offended at someone else’s personal decision.

Someone is very frustrated with a problem that has been going on, and recently an option has arisen where that problem could have been dealt with. I had assumed, in my faith of someone’s character, that they would have taken the initiative…no, the opportunity to solve a problem they could have fixed. But someone didn’t. Someone sat back, said “No comment” and sat comfortably in their presumptuous inaction.

It was said by many great men that “Action cures fear, inaction creates terror.” Never in a moment of my life has this been so true. I was grounded, floored, astounded.

How could someone be so…nonchalant about not doing anything? How could someone disregard this open opportunity to fix a year’s worth of troubles?

I asked. I asked someone why they didn’t take this opportunity. Someone replied back that they were afraid of the consequences. Consequences? Why would someone be afraid of the consequences? Everything that has ever been done has been done so without regard to the consequences. Rosa Parks, Frederick Douglass, Plato. In the face of great consequence, they stood up for their opinions, their beliefs, and their character. You live in a horrendous reality if you make decisions based on the consequences you may get from others.

Other people, I believe, are the bane of human existence. They create the world around us and make us think for the group. The create stigmas, taboos, dogma. Other people make living your own life miserable. You see it with advertisements, gossip, and un-acceptance.

The saddest part about someone’s decision to remain in the safety net of inaction is that they will never understand the freedom, the utter release of satisfaction that comes when they realize that they’ve done something against a higher power. Against the opinions and consequences of the other people, and they’ve lived, all at once, for themselves.

It is the problem of our world. We have everyone vying for our attention; we are raised to believe that we must form ourselves to the judgment of others.

It is a problem.

And it is something that everyone needs to believe they can fix, without the fear of such petty things as consequences.

It is the fear that will bring us down, but the willingness to stand up and say what needs to be said?

That will lift us up higher then we could ever imagine.