So let me see if I've got this right--
He's rejected from his social group because he has what others perceive to be a disability. He's ridiculed for being different and banned from participating in community activities. But then, and only because of an unexpected change in circumstances, what they had once seen as a disability suddenly becomes beneficial for them. Where he had previously been rejected he is now celebrated. Those who once mocked and rejected him now "love" him and proclaim that from now on he will be celebrated in perpetuity.
And this is supposed to be a GOOD thing? Seriously?
The other day I was singing along to the song when, rather suddenly, a light bulb came on over my head. You might even say, "It glowed" We do a lot of celebrating for the wrong reasons. We celebrate narrowly defined 'beauty' and 'ability' and do a lot of rejecting of those who are even only slightly different from the norm, the mainstream. We reject and we bully and we intimidate--and then we proclaim ourselves to be the victims. We insist on assimilation--and only when those we reject can somehow prove themselves to be useful do we then proclaim our acceptance and 'love.'
Heck, we even sing about it.
This Christmas I'm going to try something new--I hope you will too! Rather than accepting the norm as good and right, I'm going to question it. Maybe the things we've been celebrating shouldn't be celebrated after all. Maybe the people we've been rejecting should be included--and not only because they are useful to us, but because they are as good and wonderful as you and me and everyone else.
Who knows? Maybe if we do, someday people will celebrate US for remembering that "love does not insist on its own way."
Then we'll go down in history.
(c) Fiechter, 2015. If you enjoy, please share! If you want to reprint, please ask!
Happiest of holidays to all...(and to all, a good night!)
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