|
Incomparable ©
A hundred trillion snowflakes softly fall,
and never one will be the same as all the rest.
The planet's filled
with countless leaves and blades of grass,
and each will manifest uniqueness in its form.
We thrill to Nature's multiform display
and marvel at her dedication clear
to originality-to difference.
Six billion humans dot the earth
and each is cast in novel mold.
No fingerprint or DNA or tilt of nose
will match another.
Each human born is quite distinct
from every other living form.
In humans, Nature once again succeeds
in originality magnificently displayed.
How strange it is.
Our celebration of the difference
we're gifted with in Nature abruptly ends
when we are faced with human difference.
Suddenly difference becomes a source of fear
instead of joy
Distrust will surely grow
When "different" gets to be defined
as "unfamiliar" -therefore bad.
An infant's comfort base is grounded in familiar things.
In infant's fearful mind
"same" transforms so quickly into "safe,"
and "different" into "danger."
This early habit tends to build throughout our lives-
believing safety lies in what we know and recognize.
A different color, slant of eye, or system of belief,
awakens ancient fear of "different"-
imbedded still within our mind-
and prompts us quickly to erect
the walls that will protect us now from anything diverse.
These walls of bulwark then become
protecting from our child-born fears of unfamiliar thing.
And once erected, walls like these
effectively prevent an openness
to anything that's "not like us."
And then the task is building tools
designed to distance us from different's safety threat.
We learn to judge what's not the same,
And then look down from lofty height on variation from norm.
We're taught the way to process anything
is to compare with something else-
and give it rank as "better than" or "worse."
"Incomparable" doesn't come to mean that it defies comparison.
Within our use of words it simply means it's "better than" or "best."
Conformity is prized as culture's norm,
and thus we must discriminate
against what we define as "deviant."
At best, we're urged to "tolerate"
what varies from our precious forms.
A belief that's different from our own
is arrogantly defined as "unbelief."
We build elusive self-esteem by finding ways
to "get ahead" of someone/something else.
When worth is built on "better than"
we're trapped in tearing others down
instead of gaining strength
from Nature's bountiful diversity.
When, if ever, Peace appears
it will arrive on powerful wings
of differences embraced instead of feared.
Our celebration of what's unique within ourselves
can't truly happen till we see-and stand in awe-
of differences that do exist in everyone
with whom we share this sacred space.
Harold W Vogt Phd
12/2000
|
