Sometimes I wonder how a person who can have such a strong opinion on something can suddenly reverse themselves. Or how somebody who should have a strong opinion can seemingly forgive another person and take them back. Am I being too cryptic? Maybe I can illustrate my thoughts a little better.

If you don’t know who this couple is, you might remember their story. Rhianna and Chris Brown are Pop/R&B singers who used to date. They decided to break up after the court ordered Brown to stay away from Rhianna with a restraining order. This was brought about by the severe beating that Brown gave to Rhianna after the Grammy’s award show a few years ago. If you didn’t hear about this beating I want to let you read about how horrible it was so that you can get an idea of where I’m going with my train of thought. This is from PerezHilton.com and here are a couple of excerpts (Rhianna is referred to as Robyn F):

“Robyn F. turned to face Brown and he punched her in the left eye with his right hand. He then drove away in the vehicle and continued to punch her in the face with his right hand while steering the vehicle with his left hand. The assault caused Robyn F.’s mouth to fill with blood and blood to splatter all over her clothing and the interior of the vehicle.

Brown looked at Robyn F. and stated, ‘I’m going to beat the sh– out of you when we get home! You wait and see!’ ”

Now, this fight was inspired by the fact that Rihanna had discovered a text conversation on Chris’ phone from a woman whom he had a sexual relationship with in the past. He didn’t like her questioning him about it and this was when he started punching her. Nice, eh? Here’s a little more from PerezHilton.com:

“Brown pulled Robyn F. close to him and bit her on her left ear. She was able to feel the vehicle swerving from right to left as Brown sped away. He stopped the vehicle in front of 333 North June Street and Robyn F. turned off the car, removed the key from the ignition and sat on it.

Brown did not know what she did with the key and began punching her in the face and arms. He then placed her in a head lock positioning the front of her throat between his bicep and forearm. Brown began applying pressure to Robyn F.’s left and right carotid arteries, causing her to be unable to breathe and she began to lose consciousness.”

Apparently his mother never taught him that you don’t hit girls. What kills me about this whole story is that after everything was said and done he has never really acted like he was sorry for his behavior towards Rhianna. He is more upset that despite the fact that it’s been a few years since this ‘incident’, he’s still being questioned about it from the media. What does he expect? Of course, what sickens me even more is the most recent developments. Can you believe that Rhianna actually has spent time with him and has recorded a few songs with him??!! She shouldn’t even be letting him near her! If it was me I would not speak to him ever again. EVER.

What kind of example does this give to our younger generations? That if you beat up on a girl it’s okay, they’ll forgive you? Or if you’re a girl then you should expect a beating now and again, but you shouldn’t hold that against a guy? How are we supposed to instill confidence in our daughters and show them what it means to be treated like a woman if this is what they are seeing in the news?? It really sickens me to my core.

Do you know what else sickens me to my core? People who have such strong opinions about others, and then suddenly reverse themselves. The classic example of this is Jane Austen’s “Pride and Prejudice”.

The story starts with Elizabeth Bennett having a bad attitude regarding Mr. Darcy based upon her observations of him and what she has overheard him saying regarding her family and her friends. He basically looks down upon them all as country bumpkins and beneath his notice. She looks upon him as a city snob who doesn’t deserve her attention. Throughout the book they are randomly thrown into each others company where they orally spar and each walks away thinking that they have gotten one up on the other. Except, a monkey wrench is thrown into things when Darcy suddenly declares to her that he would like to marry her despite her family and the baggage that comes along with them. She doesn’t take to that wording too kindly and basically tells him where he can go with his marriage proposal. Enter into the mix some horrible decision making by one of Elizabeth’s younger sisters and Darcy comes running to the rescue, though she didn’t know it at the time. Thus at the end of the book Elizabeth and Darcy can declare their undying, and very passionate, love for each other.

I suppose that some might find that to be romantic. I find it to be annoying. How in the world can you have such a strong dislike, almost bordering on hate, for another person and suddenly in the blink of an eye be passionately in love with them? I  know that I’ve been told in the past that to truly love somebody you must have just as passionate feelings for them on the other end as well. You must expect to be able to fight as passionately with them as you love them. I can understand that… to a point.

Can you really and truly think the most awful things of a person at one point in time, and then turn your opinion around 180 degrees? If I thought that somebody was a complete scoundrel with no moral fiber and was the worst type of man I could think of, then he would REALLY have to go above and beyond to prove to me that he wasn’t everything that I thought of him and more. Especially if I had grown up with him, somewhat, and knew what he was like back then. That would just cement my thoughts on who he truly was. Maybe I’m just weird. Or maybe I’m being unrealistic. Either way, it has me puzzled.