Nederlands: hier

UNSETTLINGLY DIFFERENT

humanity
divided into boxes
neatly labeled
from A-Z, like in an ABC-book

the A for Autism
when you need structure
the F for Female
with accompanying social expectations
the H for Highly-sensitive
when stimuli are lived intensely
all the way to Z
via the Q that sums it up in:
Queer

such a pity
that working with averages
and taking them as a standard
makes us more and more forget
how broad
the original range was
of which the average was calculated
it increasingly narrows
the borders
around the average
of what is supposedly normal

thus, more and more traits
are named as deviations
and then turned into
disorders
that are experienced as:
unsettlingly different

much better it is
to seek and meet
each other
in traits
that each of us have
in a unique composition
differently mixed
by disposition and experience
on everyone’s path in life

then you’ll see
that some people
are good in structures
and others
in freewheeling
that some people
fathom things by intensity
while others
thrive on the big picture

and that people
could wear whatever clothes they like
put on make-up, decoration, behave
without that
being a reference
to whether one would be
male or female

so
let’s rather
think along the lines of
additional traits
far ends of a spectrum
with everything in between
instead of calling a disorder
what does not directly fit the zeitgeist

that will give us
a world full of people
each beneficially different
working in progress
supplementary creating
togetherness

This reflection is inspired by the Facebook-page of Wentworth Miller. For almost 3 years, he daily posted something on weekdays. Not as much about his carreer as an actor/writer, but to support people that feel looked upon as being an outcast because of mental health- or identity issues.
I read (and wrote) there with great pleasure. It was an uplifting and supportive experience.
Here is a link to the last note he wrote on his Facebook-page in which he announces that the moment has come to stop. Whether it will be a time-out or a complete stop, he does not know yet. He could also return online in another way. Time will tell. In any case: thanks for the past 3 years Wentworth ! (regrettably I only knew about it for the last months)

UPDATE: meanwhile, Wentworth Miller unpublished his facebookpage. All his posts though, are saved on the page called Went Archive, so that where my link leads to now.

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