Everyone's feelings are valid

Driving up I-71 the other day, my eye fell on a plaque, of sorts, pasted on the sooty panel of an 18-wheeler. It was a few printed words broadcasting a message of peace and love. It was, as I recall, credited to biblical scripture. The words themselves described a positive sentiment; don't get me wrong, but it made me think of something other than peace.

Every day we are bombarded with messages. I'm not counting advertisements here; that's a whole different topic. What I'm thinking of are the myriad declarations of peace and love and understanding, or individual betterment, or positivity, spiritual growth, etc. We see them on TV, in newspapers and car bumpers, billboards and, of course, the backs of semis transporting wondrous goodies along the arteries of our land. Wedged in between sales pitches for male enhancement creams and hassle-free car insurance, these desperate pleas for peace are found.

What, you might ask, could possibly be wrong with such messages?! What sort of unhappy cynic could find fault with a spontaneous exclamation of love in these dark days?

My answer is none, with one caveat: There seems to be a commanding force behind these declarations that forces a necessity of substantiation. That is, a message of peace and love is only acceptable for public consumption if it comes from scripture, or from a famous wit whose very name brings tailor-made credibility. Those of us who would speak of love and spiritual strength without pasting a god or specific creed behind it must therefore belong to that lunatic fringe who can be found muttering in the gun aisle at Wal-Mart or wearing six pairs of socks and a crash helmet.

I'm not attacking people who want to share the Word of God here - that's their business. Nor am I trying to say any sentiment derived thereby is not valid, or I would be more of a hypocrite than I suspect myself to be (even in my darkest moments).

Maybe, and this is far worse, it's that messages expressed purely from the heart, without attribution, are simply ignored or considered not worth pondering. Only because we haven't made sure to display a source outside ourselves who thought of it first, I suppose.

No, it's not everyone who disdains the wisdom of "normal" individuals - not everyone is ready to disregard your sentiments or mine, merely because they're from the heart and not borrowed from literature of one sort of another.

But there is, in my opinion, a strong undercurrent in public life that persuades us to ignore anyone who makes statements about the human condition who isn't a prophet, or a famous author, a politician or a religious leader. Therein is a powerful message of its own that tells us, however subtly, that we alone are not worth much, unless we act as a mouthpiece for a codified set of natural laws or popular religious beliefs.

I don't advocate the censorship of religious quotations. I'm only suggesting that if one's own feelings are shared publicly, without direct attribution, they can still be valid. That's my message.

Jeremy Simmons is a writer and graphic designer (only one of these pays anything ... guess which one!) last seen lurking on the mean streets of Hyde Park.