A small, young, black fellow once taught me that "The world don't move to the beat of just one drum, what might be right for you may not be right for some....it takes different strokes to move the world...". He was quite the wise sage this Arnold. Having such clear insights into the workings of the world at such a young age is made even more amazing when you take it into account his obvious learning difficulties that rendered him incapable to ever comprehend just what it was Willis was talking about.
I met this hippy chick once. Her name was Margot. She liked to wear tie dyed dresses and carry around a massive dragon shaped bong in her bag so she could duck off for a few hot ones when she was out. Weird? perhaps. Eccentric? definitely. But she was doing what made her happy and she didn't really give a flying eff what anyone else thought of her. Where she lived this was the norm.
It's scary how perspective can so greatly affect one's view of something. This is true of most things - from what makes someone happy to our own moral compass and everything in between. Our perspective is shaped from our life experiences and is constantly changing and evolving. To a man who has been in gaol (I refuse to americanise my spelling of this word) for 10 years well Magda Szubanski would look like a supermodel. It's all relative.
We are very fast to judge each other in this world today. Anything that doesn't fit our own notion of what is normal is generally polarised in our community. Each of us tends to live in our own fishbowl which greatly inhibits our ability to see things from another's perspective, so next time you see that red haired girl in a tie dyed dress walking aimlessly down the street and carrying a large bag, before hanging shit on her remember, to her, you are the strange one.
And then maybe offer her some clear eyes.
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