This is an excerpt from the work "Opening the Gates of the Heart: A Journey of Healing." This verse deals with how we squash the spirit of another when we require them to be like us. It asks us to consider that each is beautiful in one's own right.
Cultivation of Differences
We ask, require, demand that those around us be like us,
share our attributes, our beliefs.
And in so doing, we compare... one to another.
In that process, do we not squash the spirit of one
who is different from us -
one whose thoughts and dreams and talents
lie in a different place?
We are like wrought-iron gates.
Although similar in design,
what thrives in one spot does not grow in another.
On one, there is rust or corrosion or patina,
while on the other is mellowed brass.
One is not more beautiful than another.
Each has beauty in its own right,
if we will only look... if we will only see.
You have beautifully captured one half of the universal paradox. Your poem reminds us that some differences were meant by God. However, the side of the paradox is needed as well. Conformity is a virtue, but taken too far, as your poem reminds us, it crushes life itself.
~Z.B.McClure
"In that process, do we not squash the spirit of one
who is different from us -"
I'm afraid your words ring true. Look at the differences in the world today. Those differences dictate war or terror when in fact, we are all human beings!
Yes, we are all different and we are all beautiful. One day everyone will see that beauty lies not in conformity but in individuality. Only when we are allowed to be true to ourselfes can we create wonders.
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I met Jerome on a busy city street in Baltimore, Maryland, when he was forty-five years old. On that particular day, I was out and about, enjoying a much-needed day off from work.
I wanted to purchase a sukiyaki sub. I parked my car in an area of
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~Z.B.McClure
who is different from us -"
I'm afraid your words ring true. Look at the differences in the world today. Those differences dictate war or terror when in fact, we are all human beings!
rege