Tall atheist Asian male. Can't you see him? Right there. Do you think we'd like him - maybe become friends? He's tall & skinny, but maybe we can't believe he doesn't know faith. He's dark & Asian - not Caucasian. Would we talk to him? Or ignore him for what we've seen and heard? Because he's different? Do we want to converse - see what's inside? Or keep our distance, maybe hide. So would we see him differently?
Should we see him differently?
We automatically judge by the outside - and that's okay. I mean, we express ourselves by what we wear, how we present ourselves, what we believe in. But to judge someone only by the outside - that is the problem. There are so many differences in the people of this little world: race, gender, faith, culture, origin, and more. However those things I just listed are not everything. It's not how a person thinks, or what he or she might dream, or what he or she values about life. We have to dig deeper, I mean we might not know how someone is so scared that she won't be accepted, or how he just wants to play with the other neighborhood kids. And maybe we have a problem with the religion issue - can't understand it. But is that really Christian like, to think so?
It can be so crazy how different we are - our perceptions are like our fingerprints. Yet how similar we can be in the inside. I used to think I was so different. I would do anything for my friends, I wanted to be accepted, I wanted to fulfill my dreams, I wanted to love. Yet now I see that, although we may be vastly different on the outside, we are all so alike on the inside. I know: we're far from identical, we aren't anything near twins, we are each unique. However what's inside is similar, it's not just me; many of us would do anything for our friends, most of us want to be accepted, we want to love, and please raise your hand if you don't want your dreams fulfilled.
That tall atheist Asian male. Can you see him? Right there - there in our mind. Are we going to hate him because he's different? Because we're different too. Are we going to introduce ourselves & then maybe chat?
Let's try.
(would love to read your comments!)
About Me
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- mariposa
- As you can tell from my complete profile, I love getting out & doing physical activities, as well as I love the arts. Most people tell me I'm kind of quiet, but maybe that's just because I believe actions speak louder than words. However, I'm definitely a people person & there's hardly anything I enjoy more than hanging out & having fun. I love my friends, and would do anything for them. Whenever I have my heart & will set on a goal, nothing can stand in my way of accomplishing it and trying to be the best in whatever I do.
12 comments:
Good thoughts. True. It's amazing how, once one gets to know a person, one is able to find commonality, sometimes in very surprising ways.
The trick is getting over the "hump", that first impression that nothing is in common - searching until shared ground is discovered.
Sometimes, we just don't take the time to discover...
Elizabeth
beautifully said, you really have a way with words.
Wow, that was good. I really like the way you illustrate stuff..
:D
!never-again!
Well, if I wear a mo-hawk, people will think I'm a punk. If I wear skinny jeans and eye-liner, people think I'm "emo." But they're supposed to. If I dress like a rebel, people will assume that because that's the impression that my clothes are communicating. (I'm not talking to you, I'm just thinking out loud)
Anyways, wanna call me tonight? Or tomorrow night? Leave me a message if I can't answer.
Your right.
that's true.We always judge someone by the way they look.Great point.
This is so true.
Unfortunately, many people in this world will never be able to understand this. :( Hopefully I'm wrong, and things will change someday.
Hmmmm yeah, I guess. Your post below this is like the power mind.. Google search it for me, would ya?
You are very wise in your youthful age ( could be you have the Holy Spirit flowing through you )
Although it is true, we should not judge people by their looks....looks DO account for something! Especially in the youth of today...in school age, we all want to be accepted so we tend to follow others, in the way they think, act, judge and dress. We break off into different groups...the brains, the dweebs, the cheerleaders, the jocks, the potheads, etc. This is where the breakdown begins. As kids, we are so easily pursued to make fun of other kids, instead of following our hearts and sticking up for the kid being made fun of. As time goes on, the state of the world gets worse....just as it is written in the Bible. This is do to greed and the desire to have power over all....this is the devil's doing! I have noticed that there are many un-churched people walking around today. They may believe in Jesus, but they don't go to church. Oh I know, many people think, "what do I need a church for? I can pray to God on my own" Yes, you can, BUT....church brings people together to help and work with each other as a unit. And if God brings you to a church where an awesome pastor preaches ( as He did me...I was born and raised Catholic and in the last 2 years my eyes have been opened, thanks to a wonderful pastor that we were lead to, in a wonderful Christian church ) I now see people differently and I have more patience and the world doesn't bother me as it once did.
So, yes...don't judge a book by it's cover....instead....plant seeds! It's all we can do sometimes and sometimes, that can make all the difference in a persons life.
There's an interesting essay on the Virginia Tech massacre, that deals with being shunned because of race and appearance (among other things), in issue # 6 of n+1. You should check it out.
Here's a recap of the essay from the NY Times Papercuts blog:
Writing Dangerously
By JENNIFER SCHUESSLER
After Seung-Hui Cho killed 32 people and himself at Virginia Tech last spring, there was much discussion of whether his violent and gory submissions to creative writing classes should have prompted the university to take stronger preemptive action. Now, in its latest issue, the journal n+1 has published a remarkable essay by Wesley Yang about Cho’s writing, Cho himself, and all the friendless losers he would seem to represent.
It may be hard to approach a creepily uncharismatic mass killer who claimed to have a supermodel space-alien girlfriend named Jelly with imaginative sympathy rather than sociological revulsion and snickering discomfort, but that’s exactly what Yang manages to do. (Unfortunately, only an excerpt is available online, but I urge you to get ahold of the magazine and read the whole thing, especially if you’re an editor of “Best American Essays 2008.”) In “The Face of Seung-Hui Cho,” Yang, a freelance writer based in New Jersey, moves from an unsentimental account of his own experiences as a “skinny, acne-prone, brace-faced, bespectacled and Asian” kid who was once told by a friend that he was “essentially unlovable,” to a moving and equally unsentimental consideration of Cho’s “sad blank mug” and the thwarted desires for recognition and love behind it. “Millions of others reviled this person, but my own loathing was more intimate,” Yang writes. “He looks like me.”
Readers who don’t look and (this is Yang’s real point, as I read it) feel like Cho may finish Yang’s powerful essay with another set of uncomfortable self-recognitions. Elsewhere in the blogosphere, the essay has prompted some debate over whether Cho’s supposed rejection by women (more specifically, white women) was partly responsible for bringing his alienation to a fatal boil, and whether that’s what Yang is even suggesting. (His response is here.) But read the essay and judge for yourself.
Hey! Your blog really is amazing. I mean truly. And it's ok if you comment on my blog lol. I just have like.... two, maybe three friends, so when I saw I had a comment from someone else, I was just surprised, that's all. It looks like maybe I've made a friend here :P
I agree we should try and it gets easier each time until it becomes a habit.
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