The search alone, for this post’s featured image just proves my point. Trying to find an image with children from different backgrounds was exhausting and near impossible. I chose to go with this one despite it not truly being as much of an impact. Mind you, I only use royalty-free photos, but there were hundreds to choose from if I wanted to find kids of the same background together. To me, it is sad.
I grew up in a culturally diverse area in Canada. I never knew there were differences (at least as far as value) until I saw other friends whose parents were not so open-minded. To me – differences were just something amazing to learn about someone else. What do you do? What do you like? How do you see the world? The questions I would ask would be endless.
I’m sorry to say it, but I do believe it is true… the world needs a lot more blindness towards different skin, different cultures, different beliefs. Not blindness in not accepting or refusing to see – but in valuing a person for who they are, no matter how different they are from me. If we truly want to succeed in this world, it can only be by learning to live with one another. Otherwise, we can never be at peace and our rights along with the rights of others are always at risk. You cannot take away one group’s rights without jeopardizing your own.
It is a story as old
as time itself –
I knew you
I held your hand
I looked into your eyes
and traced the wrinkles in your smile.
When you cried,
I cried too
when you were wounded,
I felt the same pain
and we never knew
the unrestrained weight
of difference.
Your eyes
a different color
yet I saw that they were
just another beautiful way to see.
Your skin
a different shade
but I trace the lines
on your lovely face
and know
they tell their own story.
Your skin
Your hair
Your heart
Your soul
all bespeak a multitude of tales
gently woven
and I dare to find its mystery.
It is not that you are different
in ways that are not fit for man,
but that you are different
so that I may seek –
to learn
to grow
and that you may teach me.
And unfortunately,
as we grow –
we lose this ability
to truly see
and the weight of difference
lays heavy on our hearts.
We no longer touch
We no longer speak
We no longer seek to understand
and we only define beauty
by what we see in our own reflection.
© Sumyanna 2016
Written for The Daily Post Prompt: blindly
Here’s another beautiful post written on the same topic: Lizalizaskysaregrey Just loved it!
Wonderful image courtesy of Pixabay.com
Beautiful. Well said and love the image. Keep up the good work.
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Thank you very much!
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