Am having a terrible cold and all I can think of is my girlfriend. I know that if she was here, I would be getting VIP treatment with a little tongue lashing to go with it. I love having a lot of TLC when am feeling unwell…not the smothering kind but the am-right-here-for-you kind. To take my mind off her absence I have decided to write something for the blog. Am not sure what it is I want to write about but I guess we’ll all find out at the end.
The other day I took a trip to the doctors. I have this skin condition that only comes when the whether is changing. Now that we are approaching ‘winter’ (not that it snows here); the rushes have sprung out of hiding. I have never been bothered about them before but for some reason I think its time I found out what they are. So I talked my colleague into booking an appointment with a doctor he was seeing for his skin condition.
Well the appointment was confirmed but when I got there; I had to wait for an hour to be attended. Reason: the doctor was attending to other patients. I was in a foul mood and being kept waiting did not help much. Looking around, I was the only black skinned patient. Now I asked myself; do I really have to ask why am being kept waiting? As the nurse at the reception called the lady who had an appointment after my appointment; I felt the anger growing in me. Was I being overlooked? Should I go to the reception and ask what the hell is going on? Was I seeing preferential treatment here or am I overreacting? I decided to sit and wait and made a mental note to take it up with the doctor which I eventually did. In a sarcastic way with a tilt of humor, I made known my thought on the appointment system and the preferential treatment I was accorded. The doctor on his part, an elderly Indian man, acknowledged and apologized on behalf of his staff. His tone was of an adult to a two year old child. Well I decided to ignore.But one thing kept running through my mind. Was I treated different? What if they new I was a lesbian would it have been worse? When we are all human; why do we treat people differently? As depicted in George Orwell’s book Animal Farm…is it true that all animals are equal but others are more equal than others? I look at the palm of my hands and my fingers clearly show me that we were not meant to be the same. Some short and some long but they are still fingers. If you lost a finger, wouldn’t you be somehow disabled?
It does not matter whether you are straight or gay, whether smart or stupid, whether rich or poor. We are all human beings. Variety is the spice of life…
It is therefore unfortunate that we are willing to ostracize, kill, maim, rape, bully or insult others just because they are different. How far are we willing to go before we realize that what makes us different is what binds us together?
Food for thought:
“Toward no crimes have men shown themselves so cold- bloodedly cruel as in punishing differences of belief” – James Russell Lowell
Sweetp
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