7 Thoughts on the Single Image

Fri, 01/31/2014 - 23:58 -- jwat777

1)         You see a man sitting alone on a curb.

            His beard is white and his clothes are old.

            His expression seems to reveal a kind of sadness, a kind of hopelessness.

            What do you think about this man?

 

            From this description, one might assume he is homeless.

            That he has no family, that he has no money,

            No faith, no hope, nothing left in this life.

            Nobody knows that he is a war veteran who just lost his wife in a car wreck.
 

2)         A woman plays guitar and sings to passersby near a subway station.

            Preoccupied by your own struggles, you fly past her,

            But not before meeting her gaze for a single second, seeing tears form in her eyes.

            She watches another soul pass carelessly by her open guitar case.

 

            She appears to be struggling

            One might think she’s probably collecting donations for her next meal

            If you had taken a moment to listen to her lament

            You might have discovered that she is trying to fund her daughter’s chemotherapy

           

3)         A black man wearing a hood walks into a jewelry store.

            You have heard far too many stories about this kind of thing.

            They usually go inside hooded and then pull out a gun, right?

            He must be dangerous, so you avoid him and continue walking.

 

            This one image of a man is the driving force of one’s reaction.

            We are taught from an early age the ideas of stereotypes and prejudices.

            You just witnessed a father of 3 hoping to buy a surprise for his wife.

            He finds the weather to be a bit nippy this time of year.

 

4)         2 young teenaged girls wait to cross the street, their fingers intertwined.

            They gaze at each other, seemingly unaware of their surroundings.

            One glances around to see who’s around before stealing a kiss.

            You pass unnoticed, but from a deliberately extended distance.

 

            Too many people are taught to despise what is “different.”

            Too many kids are told that they are unnatural or immoral for being themselves.

            Why do we have to hide our love while others get to flaunt theirs?

            How long must the closet be a sanctuary before we realize that we are all human?

 

5)         The people of these scenarios all have something in common.

            All of their life stories are simply assumed by others.

            A person’s appearance is too often taken as identification of a single quality that

                        encompasses that person’s entire life story.

            The assumptions made from appearances serve to close the mind like a casket,

                        letting no air in or out.

 

            One single image can initiate a certain reaction from each of us. Why is that?

            Why do people insist on accepting the stereotype and giving in to the hate?

            What is it about physical qualities that make us so quick to judge?

            One’s appearance may well be a mask they use to identify those who accept.

 

6)         We automatically assume the worst of people because we are raised that way.

            From birth, we are bombarded with peoples’ opinions and points of view.

            Learning from our environments, our own views on diversity develop.

            It’s hard for one who grew up in a place where prejudice was the norm to become

                        more open-minded.

 

7)         The difference between you and me is not our skin tones.

            It is not our religions, and it is not our sexualities.

            The difference between us cannot be measured by scale or by measuring tape.

            We are all discouraged from seeing our similarities in these characteristics.

 

            The difference between you and me is the strength of our character.

            We are all human, and we all need to watch each other’s back to survive this

                        crazy, messed up world we live in.

            You may be more appreciative of, say, classic rock or modern art than I am.

            But I am the one who attempts to see the whole story.

 

            I am the one who is not fazed by a single image.

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