The Triangle or the Square

Iowa's Asphalt
Labels, categories, slots, boxes, corners, identities, sex, gender, race, religion, sexual orientation, disability, political beliefs, blah blah blah!
Our society is so hell bent on labels and categorizations that anything unable to fit perfectly in one place or the other cannot be dealt with.
Some people are feminine but not female, some masculine but not male. Some have disabilities, but all have abilities. Some people believe in a god, some in many. Some stand for something, others fall for anything.
For these people society can not find a place for them, a place they can neatly put them. A box they can hide them in, a corner to stuff them. Instead society takes their turn degrading them, oppressing them, raping them emotionally and mentally. They try to force them into place, like a child with a sorting toy, trying to cram the triangular piece into the square compartment. It’s similar to the square, but different.
Our society has become so adamant and obsessed with sorting and segregating our society. From oranges to apples and people to genders they act as though without the power and ability to sort no one can function.
Are we so ingrained with the expectations of what is thought normal that none of us can see past the package and hold what is inside? I dare dream NOT.
Yet everyday reverberates with the headlines of the world. “Hate crime takes two lives”, “Boy left to die on fence post”, “Employees file sexual harassment suit”, “President seeks an amendment to ok discrimination”, “Stem cell research banned; no cures allowed”, and the list goes on. Whether it is the actual headline or a story between the lines, prejudice, racism, sexism, all of it, are alive and well here in the United States.
We must take the insults, the hate, the non-understanding and reclaim it, make it our own and in doing so we remove the negativity, the hurt, the shame, the tears and the loneliness.
We as a society have to stand up and reclaim ourselves, our world and our way of life. We need to resist the norm, and refuse to subscribe to the blatant separations and categorizations of our friends, lovers, neighbors, classmates, co-workers, sons, daughters, brothers and sisters. We need to stop the insanity of sorting human beings like they are no more than inanimate objects to be used and thrown away. We don’t need words to explain ourselves into someone else’s understanding. We need only be, be who we are, express ourselves and just be.
With living comes understanding, with love and compassion comes acceptance. The dictionary cannot tell you who I am. The almighty Webster cannot even begin to recite where I have been, where I am going, and all the reasons why. Words alone cannot describe a persons self.
When asked if you are heterosexual, bisexual, homosexual, transsexual, trisexual, or republican, democrat, independent, white, black, Hispanic, Indian, Jewish, Christian, pagan, Muslim, or disabled, handicapped, handi-capable, able, limited, challenged, male or female how about just loudly proclaim “I am me”!
I am a member of the human race. I owe no one anything. I do not have to explain myself to anyone. I am here, you are there, we both breath, we both dream, we both aspire to do and be great things. We are the same, but different. We are the triangle and the square.
t.r mugler2002