Does the Loudest Voice Always Win?

So I got a chance to actually participate in the Fargo Marathon this past weekend when I made my way through the 5K event. I'm not a runner, but that's the beauty of the 5K: it's a FUN run!

This is the 4th year for the Fargo Marathon and it's grown from 2,500 participants the first year to nearly 13,000 this year! It's a lot of crazy fun! People have parties in their yards to help cheer the runners on and this year we had participants from each of the 50 states and several countries. It's really starting to gain national recognition and people are getting a chance to see why I love living in Fargo!

With that said, today I stumbled across a forum sponsored by our local newspaper where people were asked to share their thoughts about the marathon. What I realized is that there are lots and lots of positive comments, but a few people who really feel the need to criticize or use the forum as an opportunity to rant and rave anonymously.

If the voice of the ego speaks first and speaks loudest, how much attention should we really give to the ranting and raving voices? And if the loudest voice wins, is there a need to compete?

I've been thinking lately about the statement "Defense is the first offense," and I'm wondering why I would ever feel the need to defend anything, including an opinion. Does my truth really need defending? On the other hand, if the dissenting voice is always going to be the loudest, does that mean that the other voices don't need to be heard?

I guess what I'm wondering most is if we stop feeling the need to defend a position or a candidate or an opinion, will the loudest voice win by default or will the debate go away because one side stops playing? I think of this as it relates especially to religion and politics, two issues that seem to spur a win/lose attitude. What if there was no winner or loser - no right or wrong - no good or bad - there just is what is?

I've noticed that people seem to be realizing that the way they've been doing things just isn't producing the results they'd like in their lives, and they might be ready to take some responsibility for altering their talk to gain different results. Each of us has the opportunity to shift the energy in every conversation - and to choose not to participate in negative talk, whether that's on the radio or the internet or with our families and friends.

Let's stop the defense and, in turn, stop the offense - really, let's just start waking up to the results in our lives and change our minds about what we really want. Once we know what we want, we can choose to stand for that, rather than against something or someone else. Let's create the shift!!