People Watching

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A ‘Welfie’ World

I dream of a ‘welfie’ world
Where the ‘me’ is replaced with the ‘we’
Where the common currency is love
The common language is respect
Bound in individual responsibility
Uniting each one
And bringing together the world
Connected
Joined
Working as one
In an image celebrating diversity
Yet unified by worldcentric vision
Portrayed in one powerful snapshot
Otherwise known as US

Normality – A Rambling

What is normality
But an illusion
Shared by many
Yet not by all
A manipulation
Of reality
Of A reality
Scattered amongst equals
With significance
Accepted
Not questioned
Except by
One

But then isn’t it that one
That makes normal possible
Like a line of straightness
Where the line
Only seems straight
Only survives
As a result of the kink
A curve
Where without that bend
There would be
No straight
Nothing more

And so too without abnormality
Without that ‘one ‘
Can there be normal?
Without delusion
Can reality prevail?
Without the mask
What really is there
The possibilities
Swimming in a sea
An ocean
Of possibilities
On the spectrums of odd
Weighed in the scales of reason

Lives being lived
Unfolding in the rainbow
The wavelengths of colour
Each as precious as the next
Refracted through a prism
To bend light
Curving whiteness
To bring brilliance
All realities warped
In hues; in shades
Of colour
For maybe everything is normal
Or maybe normality just doesn’t exist

Bleeding World

There aren’t enough tears to be cried
Nor near enough droplets of rain
Not enough lakes, oceans and seas
To wash away all of this pain

For the world has a gash to her heart
A chasm of untold deep grief
A bleed that cannot be stopped
Where mere words won’t bring any relief

For as long as disunion exists
Persecution and terror abides
As long as guns blast away peace
The split will open wider; divide

And there won’t be concord til the day
Humanity joins together as one
Where judgement is counselled by truth
And love in each other runs strong

Where the light of freedom shines so bright
And filters deep into the core
Where unity will triumph and bring
Harmony in place of all war

Stigma

Don’t patronise. Don’t speak down to
Don’t snub or deign to be
All condescending. Tossing crumbs
Treating her so badly
Because ‘you’ do not think she is
Like you in any way
Or cos she simply acts and thinks
Differently per se

For how she looks, how she behaves
Is really no excuse
For you to bully her so much
And give her your abuse
For in this world of many sorts
Your judgement and your curse
Serves only to twist in a knife
And turn things bad to worse

So instead celebrate each one
Enjoy diversity
And do not mock or jeer at those
With disabilities.
And understand the plight of those
Who suffer stigma too
From mental illness for it could
So easily be you

Unity

However much we segregate
How much we dare divide
However much we quarantine
Or set apart; aside
Solutions will not then appear
Like magic calm then reign
Or simply land right in our lap
By separations gain
For by the very fact alone
The world’s diversity
Is what will bring about true peace
And harness unity

Earth-apollo10 (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Freedom Call

From the cradle to the grave
Impart a creed of love
Teach fairness and teach tolerance
With peace combined thereof

And don’t let colour of a skin
Nor disability
Sit in the seat of judgement where
The truth is hard to see

Don’t rush to brash assumption
Nor empower a path of blame
But turn away from hatred
Lest all else that might inflame

And light a fire within your heart
One that considers all
With outreach, empathy and hope
Unite the freedom call

Freedom (Photo credit: Kliefi)

Disability

When you have a disability
And a ‘hidden’ one at that
It’s not so much what you can’t do
That leaves you feeling flat
But the attitudes of others who
Just twist and turn the knife
With jibes and nasty comments that
Can ail and add more strife

The lack of understanding and
The fear to comprehend
The void of pure compassion or
Aversion to befriend
The cowering from all contact lest
The blame – indignity
The failure to see past the mask
Of disability

But those who stand out from the crowd
Who smile and take the time
To say hello or shake a hand
Tap out a different rhyme
That uplifts and renews all faith
In pure humanity
For smallest feats make largest steps
And mean the most you see!

English: A collection of pictograms. Three of them used by the United States National Park Service. A package containing those three and all NPS symbols is available at the Open Icon Library (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Tolerate

 

Think!  Patience is a virtue
Open wider your mind’s eye
Live and walk in other’s shoes
Enrich – diversify
Respect the ways of others
And be there to give support
Take care of all upon this Earth
Enjoy!  No second thought.

Successful integration / Gelungene Integration (Photo credit: alles-schlumpf)

Prism Lens

There’s a lens through which we view this world
Called cynicism’s pain
A lens that cannot understand
Each song and each refrain
That sees only the differences
The things misunderstood
And fails to grasp or comprehend
The other side of good

The side that isn’t wrong and yet
Is deemed as not quite right
Where emotions test abilities
To express divergent light
That wanders down another path
And deviates from norm
Where rational might seem quite vague
To navigate the storm

Such threads some call insanity
Just black and white in frame
Where logic, reason, rhyme are blurred
To test life’s lucid game
And yet they weave a tapestry
Not always so obscure
Suggesting they should be observed
Through a prism lens once more

A reflection on how some still view mental illness in the world today through the prescriptive lens of society and contemplation on how such black and white visions maybe miss the spectrum of colours in humanity.

English: Light dispersion of a mercury-vapor lamp with a prism made of flint glass Deutsch: Dispersion vom Licht einer Quecksilberdampflampe mithilfe eines Prismas aus Flintglas (Photo credit: Wikipedia)