insistence

 Belief requires no validation. This I write in response to a social media post. The post concerns religion and the practice of it. Well it wasn't exactly the practice of it as much as the professing of belief. It was pointed out how those that are, shall we shall, anxious to spread the word or at least inform you how strong their belief is, can be viewed as a bit overexuberant. They are often met with a less than favorable view. Just where is the line? It is my feeling the line is within the individual. That line can be offered to save another, or to save yourself. For that reason I say, belief requires no validation. Those with the strongest belief do not throw lines, they merely offer them. When it goes from a offering to an insistence, it can quickly develop into an annoyance. It's the same reaction as a host insisting you try her " special dish. " No thank you but she insists! An annoyance.
 It is my thinking that action stems from insecurity. If I am confident in my belief, I do not require any one else to believe it. When an artist first pained those abstracts didn't that artist believe in them? I'd say he/she had too, to offer them to the public at large. When they were accepted that was a validation of belief, that can't be argued, but the belief existed before the validation, not as a result of it. Just as I think those that truly believe do not require others to believe. The strength of their own conviction is not dependent upon others. Do singers sing for the recognition or sing for the joy of singing? In other words, is the art before validation or after it? I'm certain there are those that get caught up in all of that, get full of themselves as the saying goes. Isn't it telling that we use that turn of a phrase? What are we saying? We are saying those people require validation from others to survive. Without that, they wither.
 Belief lives somewhere between the truth and what we tell ourselves. It is the believing that makes it so, whether anyone else believes it or not. The hardest person to convince of any truth is yourself. We all tend to make exceptions, special circumstances, that exempt us. That is the reason we seek others to validate our beliefs. If others agree it adds credence, a viability to the thought. For some that is true even if the response is elicited or coerced! It makes no difference, as long as they receive the response they need. Like any addict, it is the " high " not how the product was obtained, that is important. For those that insist on proclaiming their beliefs loudly, in an aggressive fashion, I would say this; " conversation begins with whispers, battles begin with shouts. "