the power of words

Today I have been reflecting a lot about the power of words and opinions and the affect, whether good or bad, they can have on you and particularly the affect they can have on a relationship(of any level) when those words and opinions are disagreed upon. The reason why I've been thinking a lot about it is because over the past month or so I have started to voice my opinions and beliefs more, either through the internet like this or in person, and my opinions and beliefs have changed a lot over the past year and in the opposite direction than most. I almost started feeling apologetic about them today, but I thankfully stopped and realized that I couldn't afford to let my voice go unheard. Why, you might ask? Because my opinions and beliefs have changed due to the exposure to other viewpoints and information that I had never been exposed to before, or perhaps I was too scared to expose myself to them for the freedom that came in that also carried the potential for what I have been feeling today. But I feel as though I have had a blindfold removed from my eyes and I want to share this new view that I am experiencing. So I will end with an oft quoted poem from Robert Frost to sum this up.

Two roads diverged in a yellow wood,
And sorry I could not travel both
And be one traveler, long I stood
And looked down one as far as I could
To where it bent in the undergrowth.

Then took the other, as just as fair,
And having perhaps the better claim,
Because it was grassy and wanted wear;
Though as for that the passing there
Had worn them really about the same.

And both that morning equally lay
In leaves no step had trodden black.
Oh, I kept the first for another day!
Yet knowing how way leads on to way,
I doubted if I should ever come back.

I shall be telling this with a sigh
Somewhere ages and ages hence:
Two roads diverged in a wood, and I--
I took the one less traveled by,
And that has made all the difference.