I'm Different

Given all that's happened in the world in recent years, I'm still utterly floored at how people in North America behave. After all the times we've banded together in the face of adversity, all the times we've raised our hands together to commemorate ourselves as a culture of diversity, we still, in the end, turn on one another, based on what makes us different.

I myself have often been the "victim" of seemingly harmless criticism. I've lived a better part of my young life detached from social contact, and just recently have I come to learn some of the nuances that make the difference between being coherent, and just being wierd. For me, weird is about all I get.

Perhaps its the fact that I make odd noises sometimes, forgive me, I'm just a big fan of onomatopeia. There is nothing wrong with my brain that warrents me being called the Turett's Syndrome poster boy (I'll get the spelling for that later). I also fidget and walk kind of weird. Forgive that too. My legs grew too fast for my knees, throwing my balance off, and I point my toes up in stride when I walk to avoid tripping. It gives me an extremely awkward, but utterly stable gait as a walker and runner. My statements as a person are sometimes crude, or well above normal human understanding. My lucidity is not always lucid, I can be a bit mad sometimes, so watch out.

I think a lot of my awkwardness comes from my way of thinking, which is habitually outside the box (sometimes too habitually... simply because I cannot find the answer to a math problem does not mean the problem is non-linear). A lot of people have trouble understanding that after a virtual lifetime of discussing things like prophecy, philosophy, and things beyond the scope of here-and-now, it's very hard to come back to reality and start discussing things like food and people in a coherent, and oft times humorous manner.

My mind-set is also well off the mark. Perhaps I'm branded the outsider because I think only fools go out to kill other people. Real men do not take lives, they save them. It is fully possibly to go Carpe Diem on the world and still come out without having hurt anybody. Peace is also attainable without an excessive buildup of weapons. Besides, peace by deterrence isn't peace. It's just war that hasn't started yet.

I understand that there are other people out there who suffer worse stereotypes than I. I would like to extend my support to those people, especially those of French descent, and those who are of the Muslim faith. Those who believe in peace and understanding have friends, regardless of how unpopular, or unfavorable they are. Those who suffer disabilities are also often stereotyped, although its often more subtle than racial, national, or religious profiling. I feel especially for those who have hinderments of the brain. To me, the brain is sacred, much like a Chapel Perilous for every man and woman. To be disabled in mind, either from birth or by incident, is a tragedy of Biblical proportions.

To think that those with crippled minds should live, and yet live fuller than those with full minds and empty hearts.