Do you always play safe?

A recent newsletter in my mailbox inspired this post. In fact I can safely say that I’m very often guilty of this. I try to play safe and say things that please people or if I totally disagree with somebody or something I just keep quiet.
According to the writer of this newsletter, one might as well be dead; because she says whatever stand you take on an issue there will be an equal or double the number of people who will take an opposite stand and three times the number of that, who just don’t care about the issue.
She however makes a very valid point; she says if you don’t want to infuriate anybodyor hurt anybody's sentiments, you can do so only after your death. The dead do not bother anybody.
I think when we continuously play safe we stop our growth as the rough edges that we have in our personality get polished when we are exposed to an alternate point of view. We may agree or disagree, but we learn to explain things better. As a writer if I just sit on the fence, I’m very likely to bore my readers, on the other hand if I take a stand or express a point-of-view, it is quite likely that the reader will think , argue and perhaps give a feedback, which helps me as a writer.
I think as a story-teller if I create a conflict and try and create a resolution or leave it open to the reader to take a stand, I have all the likelihood of engaging my reader and he may like to know what I want to say in my story or what point-of-view I want to express in my story.
With this said, my new year’s resolution is to take a stand on things and not just try and please everybody…