I’ve been around for a while now, and during my life, I have come to realize that being different almost always causes people to do a “double take”. When you are different, you might possibly rouse the hatred of a petty bigot or thoughtless tyrant. However, it is important to be proud of who you are, and not change or hide from who you are because others are uncomfortable in your presence. I want people to look at ‘me’ and see me as I am. Many of us find ourselves caught in the crossfire of darting sidelong glances, scrutinized and scanned by furtive eyes trying to work out who we are.
I remember seeing a child with a disfigured face – walk in to a restaurant.The child was aware of the people staring, and his parents knew that their child, with his distorted face, was being made the centre of unwanted attention. Suddenly, the child put his head down; ashamed of the way he looked. Amidst all this activity, I saw a woman walk up to the boy. She bent down and looked in to his eyes. “You are beautiful”, she said. The room fell silent. The boy looked up. The anxiety of being different, of being a stranger, of being someone ‘different’, had dissolved like a sprinkling of sugar in a cup of ‘caffe’.
In this all-too- real world of troubles, where good people are often ostracized based their color, their looks, their height, or their weight, this kindness was an restorative act of humanity.
The boy smiled. He was different but it didn’t matter after all…