Quirky Pride

Our room looks out from high above the Hudson River. We are here in New York City to do some work over the next couple of days. We love the city, we love the energy that pulses down the street, we love the endless cavalcade of people who flow by. They have made some huge changes since we were last here. Broadway is closed for several blocks and they have put out some lawn chairs for people to sit on. Indeed. How cool. Joe pulled one up beside me and sat and we watched for a bit.

For awhile I was so caught by all the individual uniqueness that the whole concept of prejudice became absurd and impossible. No one was even slightly like the person next to them. Taken as a whole our species seems to be about creating individual's that are just 'off' the norm, some by a smidge, some by a dash, and, of course, some by a dollop. Our combined difference is what we seem to have in common.

Believe it or not I found sitting in my wheelchair, hugely fat, quietly gay, that I was as close to the norm as the next guy - which is, not very. Even those who tried to look 'normal' and 'dress' normal you could see oddness in their eyes. Really. Odd.

How do you lump together with others to hate even others when we all carry around our uniquenesses whether we like to or not. It's like there is this massive denial of how odd we are. Like we can only be friendly with, associate with, others that can create an illusion that we are all 'in' and they are all 'out'. To be sure we saw people hanging around, all of the same race, but what an odd unifier. Cause each of them was wildly different from the other. In shape. In make. In temperment. In gait. Really.

I think we should declare a day a year where we all just embrace our uniqueness and twtich and waddle, lumber and sprint, wiggle and roll, down the street in a massive demonstration of personal weirdness.

There would be Tee Shirts like:

I fart when I walk.

and

I like to bounce my balls while I wait for my wife.

and

I walk like I have a stick up my ass BECAUSE I have a stick up my ass.

I can just envision the day. No one on the street to watch. Everyone on the street in a massive demonstration of the unity that can come from admitting to, and embracing, difference.