Perceived Differences

                                  Perceived Differences

I remember watching the whole controversy, regarding television chef ‘Paula Deen,” play itself out on television some time back. I had mixed emotions about the pros and cons of excoriating this woman for utterances, however objectionable, that she may have made in her youthful past. Similar situations in politics currently serve to remind me of Paula Deen. Should we judge a person because of a careless utterance, however odious, or rather measure their whole life’s actions before passing judgment, if indeed we have that right? The good Lord knows that all of us say and do stupid things on a regular basis, or at least I certainly do.

I am reminded of the biblical parable that mentions short-sighted people, who live in glass houses, and throw stones at each other. That, and another biblical admonition warn us to “Judge not lest we too be judged.” It got me thinking about the whole notion of bias and perceived differences among us.

The differences between you and I are things that only you and I notice. To others species, we have two eyes, two arms, two legs and function in a similar bio-mechanical fashion. In Shakespeare's classic, " The Merchant of Venice," we hear this plea for rationality embodied in Shylock’s plaintive soliloquy questioning religious prejudice "Have we not two eyes, two legs?" 

We may think that our thoughts and ideas differ radically from others, but we generally use the same frame of reference when speaking of most things. Other species would think our "religious differences" miniscule. Generally, we accept the notion of a single deity and ascribe to a belief system with a code of behavior that is noble and uplifting in its aspirations. Where are the major differences?

Some would make note of the fact that we live on different scraps of land and perhaps express our ideas in different forms of speech or wave different colored pennants in the air. Closer examination reveals more similarity than disparity. How many times have you seen people make themselves understood in conversations with facial grimaces and "body English." Are we really so different? I think not.

There is a similar phenomenon with shades of skin tone. Some seek golden tans, during summer months, as a manifestation of social and physical sophistication. Others have the same coloration “factory installed.” How do you tell the difference? And the surest test of the silliness of the issue, is displayed during evening hours. Then, we are precluded from delineating yellow from brown from white. So what substantial difference does the coloration of one’s wrapper make in evaluating a person’s worth? None, I would submit. 

An extra-terrestrial, whose life form is silicon based, instead of carbon based and whose primary means of "breathing" necessitated a methane-based atmosphere, that would be toxic to us, might make a case that he/she/it was truly different. The rest of us would look silly making a case to him/her/it that we were all indeed different forms of our species. And what of the notion of afterlife? Do ephemeral mists come in colors with distinguishing facial characteristics? How much does the energy of pure thought and ideas differ among the earth bound?

In an old "Star Trek" television series episode there was a segment that featured two bitter enemies from another planet. They chased each other throughout the Universe, bent on murder. At the very end of the episode, it developed that the source of their hatred and lifelong prejudice was that one had the left side of his face blackened and the right side white. The other was born with the reverse. No one else could see the difference but the two combatants. It defined their outlook on life and towards each other. I would suggest that, like these two television characters, we manufacture our own differences to suit some inner deficiency or character flaw, one that is not readily apparent to anyone else.

In Jonathan Swift’s classic novel " Gulliver’s Travels," we see the concept even more sarcastically outlined. Swift, tongue in cheek, portrays an entire people who fought with and despised each other because they cracked open their breakfast egg from the small end or the large end respectively. Jonathan Swift masterfully developed the parody, of then British court manners, and laughed at of our silly human foibles in general.

People are "different" because some wish it to be so. Would that it were not. We might actually all get along, after a fashion, however unsettling that notion might be to some.

                                             -30-

                                      (760 words)

                                Joseph Xavier Martin