BlogThis: If I could Change the World? Tolerance.

I had to think very hard about this challenge for BlogThis.

If I was ruler of the world? Oh how things would change.

But changes, often act like chain reactions.

If I wanted to lower the price of electricity or water, it would mean more taxes.

If I wanted to lower the price of chocolate, it would mean that there would be almost no money going to those poor children who are enslaved to make it.

If I wanted make health care, or schooling free, it would mean more money pulled from places that really need it.

So, I needed to think of something that I think would be an exception.

And this is what I came up with.

Tolerance.

The world today is lacking this key ingredient to just… getting along.

So if I could magically change the world, then well, this is what I would change.

I’m going to tell you a story of a girl I knew a few years ago.

She was shy, a quiet girl, with a small group of friends, who was kind to whoever she met, even those who did not like her. She had strong beliefs, and she was passionate about them, but never pressed them on others. That was just uncalled for.

So one day, she fell in love. She was so happy that she had found someone that she thought she could spend her life with, she wanted to shout it from the rooftops, and jump for joy.

But she knew she couldn’t. Because, well, who she loved, made herself a little controversial. She had fallen in love with another women.

As much as it confused her to why her loving a woman made any difference, she knew what kind of a commotion it would cause, and kept it to herself, just between her friends.

Her friends made her feel fantastic. For they were the type of people who loved her, no matter what, and did not care who she loved, as long as she was loved in return. Even her best friend Olivia, who was secretly in love with her herself, was supportive.

Feeling so great about herself, she gathered up the courage and changed her ‘Likes’ status on her bio, to women.

Weeks went by, and she was feeling great, still worrying a little about what might happen. But the strength from her girlfriend, and her friends gave her hope.

But then the rumors started. They sprouted up over the school yard, like weeds in a garden.

‘She likes what?’

‘No way! Not her, she’s too proper for something so disgusting.’

‘Her and that Olivia, they’re fucking, I know it, you can see it all over them.’

‘No way, she’s into older women! I heard she was trying to crack onto Mrs Jace.’

‘Ugh, what a freak, she shouldn’t even be allowed here. It’s dangerous for us.’

But she was a strong girl, and rumors, however bad, had always gone away before, so she carried on, ignored them, and her friends did too.

But then the worst happened. Some of the more popular girls in the school took it upon themselves to make sure that their belief that the girl was such a ‘freak’, was imprinted on her.

They cornered her during a free period, when everyone else was in class, and the girl was going to the bathroom. Of course, 4 against 1 were such fair odds. They beat her, scratched her, taunted her. The girl dodged quite a few hits, got in a few herself.

Luckily, another girl found her, and the others fled.

No one besides the girl and her friends, her attackers, the girl who found her, and the Teachers, found out about it. The attackers were expelled, and everything came to a close.

But it was not the pain of her wounds that caused her grief, it was the fact that nothing was done to stamp out the cause of this attack. Nothing was done to try and convince anyone else who felt this strongly about homosexuality, that is was not WRONG, but just another preference. Nothing was done to promote tolerance.

She is happy now, I know it, I have not seen her in several years, but I speak to her once in a while. She is living the life that is destined for her, without worry of prejudice, or grief, and although things might be different for her now, they are still good.

In the end, her girlfriend that seemed to give her so much, was not the right person for her. But that was okay, because she has met someone much better.

So this is what I would change about the world.

If it be about homosexuality, religion, ethnicity, gender, if you have a problem with someone you work with, if you neighbour isn’t the exact type of neighbour you want, if it be about anything that does not directly impact your own lives:

Then hate all you want, but do it on your own, do not actively set out to humiliate and hurt those who differ from you.

I sometimes do not agree with the ideas of others, so I do not say anything, I keep my mouth (with all those disapproving comments) closed, and try to think about it with a fair and objective attitude.

And I would help the world to try and change their ideas, and do the same.

As Friedrich Nietzsche once said:

“You have your way. I have my way. As for the right way, the correct way, and the only way, it does not exist.”