Do not allow hate in our hearts. It is tragically easy to do just that. It is the easy route. The easy path follows hate and othering and dehumanizing those that are different. And while we can all have weak moments, moments where we take the easy route, please resist apathy’s promise of a simpler life. That is a dim and sheltered life.
Care for others. Try to empathize and understand them. Think upon all things as the complex series of interconnected possibilities that they are.
And yes, we have to protect our values. We have to protect our beliefs. But at some point, our beliefs will conflict with the needs and wants and desires of someone else. That conflict is inevitable. But our reaction to that conflict is not inevitable. The reactions we give are choices.
The world is not a comfortable small town bar where we can know everyone’s name. It is full of differences of culture and race and gender and understanding. Even the next town over is full of a thousand imperceptible differences that cannot be reconciled. The world is unfathomably large and diverse. So, we will all face moments of questioning and doubt as our values meet with those that are incompatible.
The kind way, the better choice, the hardest path, is to consider those differences with an open mind. We must all find a way to separate those pieces of lifestyle that actively harm versus those that are harmless. And yes, the definition of harmful can be subjective and faulty. There is, and has always been, a fine-lined balancing act of judgment versus acceptance. To protect who we are, and to protect ourselves from harm, we have to keep balancing.
But some things should be unquestionably sacred. Some parts of humanity deserve absolute protection.
Gender should not matter. Race, too, should not matter. Religion, sexual preferences, body size, body modifications, what we wear, how we express ourselves, and a thousand more bits of self that people carry close to heart should not matter. Yet, they are made to matter. The things that would be so easy to accept are often vigorously rejected. The things that affect nothing of another person’s daily life are often rallied against merely for existing.
However, those bits of self should not be ignored. The parts of a person, of a people, should absolutely never be ignored. We cannot simultaneously accept something and be blind to its existence. As humans we have no capability to shut something from our minds and maintain sympathy for that detail. The things we choose to ignore cease to exist, and the things that don’t exist can be discarded. Ignoring a person’s identity? Ignoring who they choose to be? That is also hate. Fear, and hate.
Do not discard another human merely for being different. Do they seek to actively harm us? Do they strive to destroy our physical or emotional state of being? If the answer is no, then do not react to them with anger or fear. But even then, if the fear rises, if the anger boils over, we must step back and ask ourselves why. Make the attempt to sympathize. Make the attempt to understand.
Often enough, we imagine a threat. That cannot be denied. How often do we look down a dark hallway and wonder what lurks beyond the darkness? How often does a dark forested path alter our course toward the light?
Please do not let the imagined threat determine our actions.
This is a plea of acceptance. This is not a request for anyone to roll over so they can be stepped on. There is no kindness in a one-sided surrender. A one-sided surrender is just another kind of hate.
And we all make mistakes. We all fail from time to time. That is human. And it is also incredibly human to reject failure, no matter the number of failures, so that we can try again.
