{"id":987,"date":"2016-10-21T08:00:48","date_gmt":"2016-10-20T22:00:48","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/admin.patheos.com\/blogs\/hearthwitchdownunder\/?p=987"},"modified":"2018-01-24T13:32:10","modified_gmt":"2018-01-24T03:32:10","slug":"bad-for-me-good-for-you","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/hearthwitchdownunder\/2016\/10\/bad-for-me-good-for-you.html","title":{"rendered":"Bad for Me, Good for You"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<\/head>

One of the more interesting, and frustrating, things I see online is how people react to another person\u2019s choices, especially when those choices seem to be directly opposite their own.\u00a0 Not just in the Pagan, Polytheist and related communities \u2013 but in a million different communities.<\/p>\n

Homeschooling perhaps provides the easiest example that I can quickly give of what I mean (but don\u2019t worry, this is a Pagan post).\u00a0 I homeschool, and occasionally I wax lyrical about how awesome homeschooling is.\u00a0 Sometimes I may even mention that one of the many reasons I homeschool is because I don\u2019t like the public school system all that much.\u00a0 Many homeschoolers do this.\u00a0 And many people who send their kids to public (or even private) school seem to take such comments as a direct attack on their parenting choices and abilities.<\/p>\n

They seem to think that because we think homeschooling is better (for us) then we must also think every parent who doesn\u2019t homeschool is a bad, lazy, worthless, parent.\u00a0 To the point where we even apparently insinuate that non-homeschoolers don\u2019t love their kids.\u00a0 But this is all far from the truth.<\/p>\n

The same sort of thing happens in Paganism and the related communities \u2013 online for the most part, but offline too.\u00a0 Someone will talk about how they do ritual, or how the rules of their tradition state you can\u2019t do this thing here, or must do this thing there, and suddenly the world explodes.\u00a0 Don\u2019t tell me what to do! You\u2019re not better than me! How dare you think you know everything!?!<\/p>\n

Blah. Blah. Blah.<\/p>\n

\"Right
Public domain via pixabay<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

I love to read other Pagan and related blogs.\u00a0 One of the things that I enjoy most is coming across posts that make me say to myself, \u201cHa! No way am I ever doing that!\u201d<\/p>\n

Reading that, you may think I am laughing at the person who wrote the post I am reading, but I am not. I am actually laughing at the idea of me doing those things.\u00a0 I imagine myself doing things as they do, just for a brief moment I imagine it, and the image is ludicrous.<\/p>\n

But just because the image of me doing it is laughable and ludicrous, doesn\u2019t mean the image of someone else doing it is the same.\u00a0 Indeed, for the most part, the descriptions people share of their practices conjure up images that I find somewhat awe inspiring.\u00a0 Why else would I spend even a second imagining myself doing what they do, if I didn\u2019t find it worthy of doing?<\/p>\n

An example.\u00a0 I was reading a post by Galina Krasskova the other day<\/a>, she was speaking of how she wants to get to a place in her practice that might include praying or doing rituals to the Gods for several hours each day.\u00a0 I read that and imagined myself doing that and\u2026 immediately felt exhausted.\u00a0 I couldn\u2019t do it.\u00a0 Not that, no way.\u00a0 It\u2019s too much.<\/p>\n

For me.\u00a0 Because I know myself.\u00a0 I am able to recognise, usually, what my limits are \u2013 my strengths and weaknesses.\u00a0 I can imagine myself doing what Galina wants to do, I can imagine how amazing her goal is and I can recognise that if I were to try it \u2013 it wouldn\u2019t be so amazing, because I would be doing it.\u00a0 It would not be amazing because I know, at some point, I would feel more obligated and less awed by it.\u00a0 It would begin to feel like a chore, that I might come to hate.\u00a0 For me, that level of devotion would be bad.\u00a0 I could wish otherwise \u2013 but I know the truth of myself.<\/p>\n

But none of those thoughts and realisations had anything to do with Galina or my opinion of her or her practice.\u00a0 Because actually, I also thought, at the same time, how full on is that? The level of devotion and discipline that would require.\u00a0 It\u2019s really quite amazing to imagine. Something to admire in my opinion.\u00a0 And if I were capable of doing that, I would certainly aspire to it.<\/p>\n

\"Could
Arthur Rackham [Public domain], via Wikimedia Commons<\/a><\/figcaption><\/figure>One of my favourite little sayings in Paganism and in homeschooling is the simple, \u201cWhat is good for one person is not necessarily good for another.\u00a0 And vice versa, what is bad for one person is not always bad for someone else.\u201d<\/p>\n

It\u2019s a simple one, you have probably read it many times by Pagans and by others as well.\u00a0 But I wonder how many stop to really think about these words and recognise the truth in them.\u00a0 Not as many as could, that\u2019s for sure.\u00a0 But hopefully more than my cynicism\u00a0lets me believe.<\/p>\n

If you haven\u2019t thought about it, I hope\u00a0you do now.\u00a0 Because it is truth at its most simple and plain.\u00a0 It\u2019s good for me, doesn\u2019t mean I am saying it must be good for you.\u00a0 It\u2019s bad for me, doesn\u2019t mean I am saying it must be bad for you.<\/p>\n

Opposite doesn\u2019t always equal in opposition.<\/p>\n

Remember that, and it will make things a lot easier when listening to or reading the opinions of others.<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

One of my favourite little sayings in Paganism and in homeschooling is the simple, “What is good for one person is not necessarily good for another. And vice versa, what is bad for one person is not always bad for someone else.”<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2764,"featured_media":988,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[42,12,11],"tags":[17,20,32,29,25],"class_list":["post-987","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-general","category-pagan-blogosphere","category-pagan-community","tag-blogosphere","tag-opinion","tag-paganism","tag-polytheism","tag-religion"],"yoast_head":"\nBad for Me, Good for You<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"One of my favourite little sayings in Paganism and in homeschooling is the simple, "What is good for one person is not necessarily good for another. And vice versa, what is bad for one person is not always bad for someone else."\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/hearthwitchdownunder\/2016\/10\/bad-for-me-good-for-you.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Bad for Me, Good for You\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"One of my favourite little sayings in Paganism and in homeschooling is the simple, "What is good for one person is not necessarily good for another. And vice versa, what is bad for one person is not always bad for someone else."\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/hearthwitchdownunder\/2016\/10\/bad-for-me-good-for-you.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Hearth Witch Down Under\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:author\" content=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/ThePaganVeil\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2016-10-20T22:00:48+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2018-01-24T03:32:10+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/wp-media.patheos.com\/blogs\/sites\/690\/2016\/10\/signs-pixabay.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"600\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"316\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Bekah Evie Bel\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:creator\" content=\"@thepaganveil\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Bekah Evie Bel\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"4 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/hearthwitchdownunder\/2016\/10\/bad-for-me-good-for-you.html\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/hearthwitchdownunder\/2016\/10\/bad-for-me-good-for-you.html\",\"name\":\"Bad for Me, Good for You\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/hearthwitchdownunder\/#website\"},\"datePublished\":\"2016-10-20T22:00:48+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2018-01-24T03:32:10+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/hearthwitchdownunder\/#\/schema\/person\/4fad88778c6fe8fc986d6ac7c0702ebf\"},\"description\":\"One of my favourite little sayings in Paganism and in homeschooling is the simple, \\\"What is good for one person is not necessarily good for another. And vice versa, what is bad for one person is not always bad for someone else.\\\"\",\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/hearthwitchdownunder\/2016\/10\/bad-for-me-good-for-you.html#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/hearthwitchdownunder\/2016\/10\/bad-for-me-good-for-you.html\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/hearthwitchdownunder\/2016\/10\/bad-for-me-good-for-you.html#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/hearthwitchdownunder\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"Bad for Me, Good for You\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/hearthwitchdownunder\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/hearthwitchdownunder\/\",\"name\":\"Hearth Witch Down Under\",\"description\":\"\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/hearthwitchdownunder\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":\"required name=search_term_string\"}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/hearthwitchdownunder\/#\/schema\/person\/4fad88778c6fe8fc986d6ac7c0702ebf\",\"name\":\"Bekah Evie Bel\",\"image\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/hearthwitchdownunder\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/76ee66f5182ea8791be935ab1f8a5901?s=96&d=identicon&r=g\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/76ee66f5182ea8791be935ab1f8a5901?s=96&d=identicon&r=g\",\"caption\":\"Bekah Evie Bel\"},\"description\":\"I am an Aussie Hellenic Revivalist, Domestic Pagan, Hearth Witch and Devotee of Hekate and the Covenant of Hekate. I was raised Agnostic, bordering on Atheist and became Pagan long before I knew the label existed in a modern sense. My \\\"conversion\\\" to Hellenism is fairly recent so I am still in discovery mode, and you get to share that journey with me. I was admin and owner of the Pagan Veil social network for 4 years and have a minor presence within the Aussie, Pagan and Aussie Pagan Homeschooling communities.\",\"sameAs\":[\"http:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/hearthwitchdownunder\",\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/ThePaganVeil\",\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/thepaganveil\"],\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/hearthwitchdownunder\/author\/bebel\"}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Bad for Me, Good for You","description":"One of my favourite little sayings in Paganism and in homeschooling is the simple, \"What is good for one person is not necessarily good for another. And vice versa, what is bad for one person is not always bad for someone else.\"","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/hearthwitchdownunder\/2016\/10\/bad-for-me-good-for-you.html","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"Bad for Me, Good for You","og_description":"One of my favourite little sayings in Paganism and in homeschooling is the simple, \"What is good for one person is not necessarily good for another. And vice versa, what is bad for one person is not always bad for someone else.\"","og_url":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/hearthwitchdownunder\/2016\/10\/bad-for-me-good-for-you.html","og_site_name":"Hearth Witch Down Under","article_author":"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/ThePaganVeil","article_published_time":"2016-10-20T22:00:48+00:00","article_modified_time":"2018-01-24T03:32:10+00:00","og_image":[{"width":600,"height":316,"url":"https:\/\/wp-media.patheos.com\/blogs\/sites\/690\/2016\/10\/signs-pixabay.jpg","type":"image\/jpeg"}],"author":"Bekah Evie Bel","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_creator":"@thepaganveil","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"Bekah Evie Bel","Est. reading time":"4 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/hearthwitchdownunder\/2016\/10\/bad-for-me-good-for-you.html","url":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/hearthwitchdownunder\/2016\/10\/bad-for-me-good-for-you.html","name":"Bad for Me, Good for You","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/hearthwitchdownunder\/#website"},"datePublished":"2016-10-20T22:00:48+00:00","dateModified":"2018-01-24T03:32:10+00:00","author":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/hearthwitchdownunder\/#\/schema\/person\/4fad88778c6fe8fc986d6ac7c0702ebf"},"description":"One of my favourite little sayings in Paganism and in homeschooling is the simple, \"What is good for one person is not necessarily good for another. And vice versa, what is bad for one person is not always bad for someone else.\"","breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/hearthwitchdownunder\/2016\/10\/bad-for-me-good-for-you.html#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/hearthwitchdownunder\/2016\/10\/bad-for-me-good-for-you.html"]}]},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/hearthwitchdownunder\/2016\/10\/bad-for-me-good-for-you.html#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/hearthwitchdownunder"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"Bad for Me, Good for You"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/hearthwitchdownunder\/#website","url":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/hearthwitchdownunder\/","name":"Hearth Witch Down Under","description":"","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/hearthwitchdownunder\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":"required name=search_term_string"}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/hearthwitchdownunder\/#\/schema\/person\/4fad88778c6fe8fc986d6ac7c0702ebf","name":"Bekah Evie Bel","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/hearthwitchdownunder\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/76ee66f5182ea8791be935ab1f8a5901?s=96&d=identicon&r=g","contentUrl":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/76ee66f5182ea8791be935ab1f8a5901?s=96&d=identicon&r=g","caption":"Bekah Evie Bel"},"description":"I am an Aussie Hellenic Revivalist, Domestic Pagan, Hearth Witch and Devotee of Hekate and the Covenant of Hekate. I was raised Agnostic, bordering on Atheist and became Pagan long before I knew the label existed in a modern sense. My \"conversion\" to Hellenism is fairly recent so I am still in discovery mode, and you get to share that journey with me. I was admin and owner of the Pagan Veil social network for 4 years and have a minor presence within the Aussie, Pagan and Aussie Pagan Homeschooling communities.","sameAs":["http:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/hearthwitchdownunder","https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/ThePaganVeil","https:\/\/twitter.com\/thepaganveil"],"url":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/hearthwitchdownunder\/author\/bebel"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/hearthwitchdownunder\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/987","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/hearthwitchdownunder\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/hearthwitchdownunder\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/hearthwitchdownunder\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2764"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/hearthwitchdownunder\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=987"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/hearthwitchdownunder\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/987\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/hearthwitchdownunder\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/988"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/hearthwitchdownunder\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=987"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/hearthwitchdownunder\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=987"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/hearthwitchdownunder\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=987"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}