Decree of Fate (WAB0817)

I have been thinking about toleration, or perhaps more accurately said, lack of toleration.  This is a subject that has always befuddled me.  I don't understand why people, are not just accepted for who and what they are.  I do not understand why folks who live different life styles, have different forms of faith, different ethnic back grounds or have different physical characteristics are treated differently.  One of the things that I have found is that it is our differences that create diversity and bring a special joy to life.

Now in saying these things, I am not saying that anything and everything that someone is or does is acceptable.  If a persons actions are harmful to others, they do not fit within what I am trying to say.  All of us have a responsibility to treat others with dignity and respect regardless of our genetic make up (nationality, sexuality etc), regardless of our faith beliefs, regardless of our age or anything else that our social structures use to divide individuals, categorize and marginalize.

Mostly, from my own observation, is seems to me that society as a whole only gives lip service to the differences between people.  For the most part, (from societies perspective) we are all male, or female, white or coloured, (or aboriginal, or something else).  But that is my point.  Why do we even see these differences, why are they even important.  Why do we see male or female, why do care if someone is of a particular nationality or has a specific genetic make up.  Why do we care if someone is straight or gay or bisexual or transgendered or a host of so many different things.  Why do we care?  And that is what I don't get.  Perhaps it is those who seem to care the most about these kinds of differences that have the greatest fear or are the least settled and content in their lives.

As I have gotten older, I think I have accepted a more live and let live kind of approach in which I can accept people as they are for who they are.  I don't have any need to change them.  I don't appreciate it if they attempt to change me, and I do not need to condone or judge who they are or the choices they make.  What I feel a need to do, is to just accept them as they are, and to allow them to live and experience life and their creation as it unfolds.  That does not mean that I like everyone I meet, or that I have a desire to live in the ways that others choose to live.  What it does mean, is that I want to live my life in freedom, to be able to express who and what I am without fear of prejudice or bias from others, and I need to allow others to do the same.