When I was a kid, I remember feeling like an outsider. It never felt good. I was quiet, shy and played with just 1-2 kids on the playground. Gradually as I got older, I grew tired of playing during recess and preferred going for walks while reading. I would circle the playground with my nose in a book.
This made me different and I became a target for bullies. I was always just minding my own business, but people would think it was fun to criticize me for reading. Eventually, I stopped caring because I was reading at a level 3-4 grades above my own. I began writing as well, filling up notebooks with silly stories based on the books I read.
Kids teased and bullied me. They made me feel like I was different, abnormal and not worth anything. It separated me from others and made me feel like an outcast. And it all started over books! I was not actually different from the other children besides my love of books.
From my early days of being bullied, I have developed a higher level of empathy and sympathy for others. I also developed an internalized message that I wasn't good enough. This message has taken years for me to overcome. I merely wanted to feel equal, but the message was "you're different and it is okay to be bullied for it..." Nobody should ever be made to feel inferior.
When I see situations today where racism and prejudism exist, I see it as a form of modern-day bullying. When we foster an idea that one group of people is better than another, it is bullying. It creates those same feelings of being separated from others that I felt as a child, but on a larger scale.
Think about being told that your marriage is counterfeit. not worthy of being recognized, or that your family is not fit for raising children in. Do you think that those messages are merely external? Or do you think those messages are then internalized? I firmly believe that those statements cause a rift between people which turns into a chasm keeping people from uniting.
Now we see situations where riots are happening in Baltimore. Do you think that those riots are merely from one instance of a group of people feeling different? I think that it is from generations of bullying... being treated like outcasts, separate but equal, and our own internalized prejudices against different groups which we perceive as different.
Some might say "We should allow civil unions but not marriage." But this is another means of separate but equal. It gives the message "you're just not good enough..." That message is internalized. Gradually, that message is believed by many people.
I've seen very good people say unkind things about minorities---that they're just milking the system for welfare checks or that they're all criminals. When we say or think those things, we're bullying. We're deepening that chasm. In actuality, we're not as different as one might think. We all want love, acceptance, and to be treated fairly.
Are there ways in which you, maybe even unintentionally, have become a bully in your thoughts and feelings? Maybe we need to remember that deep down, we're all children on a playground wanting acceptance.
This made me different and I became a target for bullies. I was always just minding my own business, but people would think it was fun to criticize me for reading. Eventually, I stopped caring because I was reading at a level 3-4 grades above my own. I began writing as well, filling up notebooks with silly stories based on the books I read.
Kids teased and bullied me. They made me feel like I was different, abnormal and not worth anything. It separated me from others and made me feel like an outcast. And it all started over books! I was not actually different from the other children besides my love of books.
From my early days of being bullied, I have developed a higher level of empathy and sympathy for others. I also developed an internalized message that I wasn't good enough. This message has taken years for me to overcome. I merely wanted to feel equal, but the message was "you're different and it is okay to be bullied for it..." Nobody should ever be made to feel inferior.
When I see situations today where racism and prejudism exist, I see it as a form of modern-day bullying. When we foster an idea that one group of people is better than another, it is bullying. It creates those same feelings of being separated from others that I felt as a child, but on a larger scale.
Think about being told that your marriage is counterfeit. not worthy of being recognized, or that your family is not fit for raising children in. Do you think that those messages are merely external? Or do you think those messages are then internalized? I firmly believe that those statements cause a rift between people which turns into a chasm keeping people from uniting.
Now we see situations where riots are happening in Baltimore. Do you think that those riots are merely from one instance of a group of people feeling different? I think that it is from generations of bullying... being treated like outcasts, separate but equal, and our own internalized prejudices against different groups which we perceive as different.
Some might say "We should allow civil unions but not marriage." But this is another means of separate but equal. It gives the message "you're just not good enough..." That message is internalized. Gradually, that message is believed by many people.
I've seen very good people say unkind things about minorities---that they're just milking the system for welfare checks or that they're all criminals. When we say or think those things, we're bullying. We're deepening that chasm. In actuality, we're not as different as one might think. We all want love, acceptance, and to be treated fairly.
Are there ways in which you, maybe even unintentionally, have become a bully in your thoughts and feelings? Maybe we need to remember that deep down, we're all children on a playground wanting acceptance.