Not Assessing the Value of Something ONLY In Terms of How You Identify w/ It

The expression of art and ideas into the world has merit for its own sake. They can also have value for you even if you disagree or can’t 100% relate.

Not everything has to be forced into all or nothing extremes of either appropriating something to wear as a badge of your identity or else completely rejecting it.

As the teacher from “Perks of a Wallflower” reminds the main character: try to be a filter, not a sponge.

That goes for everything. Ideas (even challenging ones) are meant to be thought about, they teach you who you are and what you believe in. Other people’s art isn’t for you, it’s for them. But it makes the world richer and beautiful when they share it with others.

Read a poem or listen to an album about grief even if you’ve never experienced it. You don’t have to like it, but things like Instagram can poison how we consume. The world feels sad and small and lonely where the only appraisal is whether we want to wear the re-share as an extension of “me.”

Trust yourself. I’ve read both Atlas Shrugged and the Fountainhead. I enjoyed reading and critically thinking about them, and I’m not a psycho that hates people.