This outer toughness just conditioninga baby alligatorthat’s me Raised in a swampEat or be eaten!family mantra, andDeal with it! I know it’s a lotto take insee the disbeliefin civilized eyes Resistance to oppression begets deeper woundsFear taught me wellSurvival, they say, of the fittest. (For Reena’s Xploration challenge: featured image is prompt.)
Life’s mountaina rough climbbody fails to adjustfocused as we areon destination Sights a sepia blurhere approaching summitscree presents new danger I vote we pause awhileappreciate our labourbreathe in colour for once. (Art mine)
Childdelightful youthmy heart’s jewellight-bearerhope antics haphazardlaughter contagiousspreading joysparking imagination I pray that your spiritremains vibrant, andthat reality dawns gently (This poem first appeared in November 2018, as A Child Glows. I submit an edited and re-titled version here for Eugi’s Weekly prompt: jewels. Image my own.)
I’m with you on that! I have so much to learn.
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Appreciate you taking time to comment. Visited your site and followed. We’ll learn together
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Learning together sounds great, V.J. It’s a journey.
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It sure is.
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At a very young age I was emphatically told by my mother about the exceptionally kind and caring nature of our black family doctor.
She never had anything disdainful to say about people of color; in fact she loves to watch/listen to the Middle Eastern and Indian subcontinental dancers and musicians on the multicultural channels.
Thus essentially by chance I reached adulthood unstricken by uncontrolled feelings of racial contempt seeking expression.
Conversely, if she’d told me the opposite about the doctor, I could’ve aged while blindly linking his color with an unjustly cynical view of him and all black people.
Not as lucky, some people—who may now be in an armed authority capacity—were raised with a distrust or blind dislike of other racial groups.
Remove the greatest difference among humans—race/color—and left are less obvious differences over which to clash, such as sub-racial identity (i.e. ethnicity), nationality, religion and so forth down that scale we tumble.
(Add a, say, contemporary deadly disease to the ugly equation and there’s a real potent fuel for the hateful fire.)
Therefore, what humankind may need to suffer in order to survive the long term—indeed, from ourselves!—is an even greater nemesis (perhaps a multi-tentacled ET?) than our own politics of difference, against which we could all unite, attack and defeat—all during which we’d be forced to work closely side-by-side together and witness just how humanly similar we are to each other.
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Being raised with awareness and appreciation for others is indeed a blessing. I was not, but education helped me raise me above those levels. I am currently reading White Fragility, which is opening my eyes further. Thanks for commenting.
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Absolutely!
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I couldn’t agree more.
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Well said by MLK.
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Yes!
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