Day Fifteen: Acceptance

I try very hard to be accepting.

I think this is easier for my generation than it was for my parents’ or my grandparents’ generation. On one level, I was raised around all types of people: all colors of skin, all races, all genders, sexualities, etc, etc, etc. I was also raised in a time when these differences were a part of the common culture. Remember that fifty years ago, gay people were hardly ever in television and only seemed to make the news if something bad happened.

These days we’re exposed from an early age to a little bit of everything. There are people who will argue this is a negative part of our modern culture, but I will argue that it has made me a better person. Growing up, I had the opportunity to engage myself with people of various cultural and world experiences. Sometimes I met people as a part of my natural environment through school or church, and sometimes these were people I actively sought out.

I think acceptance and having an accepting attitude is something to be proud of; I also wish that more people could say they were proud of it. I feel like accepting other people is a far easier task than alienating, hating or ignoring them. It baffles me that it is so hard for some people to wrap their heads around the fact that we’re all different. 

My father always says “It don’t take all kinds, we just got all kinds.” Is it true that we don’t actually need gay people, feminists, vegans, Black people, Native people, immigrants and the disabled to have a functioning society? I would argue that yes, we do need them. But there are those who argue that we don’t. Either way, the fact of the matter is that this is reality and it is high time you have come to accept it. Keep hate out of your heart, out of your head and out of your mouth. You will be surprised at how much better the world is.

Challenge to my Readers:

Learn about another culture today. Read about it online, in a magazine or the museum. Share it with someone else.