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Sticks & Stones (Revisited)

Sticks and stones may break my bones but names will never hurt me. 

We've all heard this. At what point did people forget about it? Yes...words can hurt feelings. But remember, they're YOUR feelings. Own them. If someone says something to you or about you that upsets you...don't blow your brains out over it. In so doing, you have completely empowered the person using the language that you don't like. In short, the more fuss you make about it, the more power you give that person and their words.

Instead, try calmly explaining the fallacy of the word(s) intended to hurt you. If you can't do that...you need to work on yourself first. Learn to be comfortable in your own skin. Learn to not only love yourself...but LIKE yourself!

Sometimes in life we have to educate people. If your response to that is "I'm no teacher!" then you're already failing as a human being. We all teach each other, every day. We teach our children, and those around us, by our actions. We give context to the things we say. Guess what...like it or not, you're a teacher. You just might have to educate someone that you'd rather not speak with. Suck it up, buttercup. None of us were ever guaranteed an easy life. If something is troubling you, fix it. That fix might be as easy as speaking to one person. If that person doesn't listen, the next one might. It's a slow process. Deal with it. No house was ever built by throwing a pile of bricks at one spot. Each brick had to be carefully placed, in the most efficient way possible.

Don't be a "blank".

Too many people see themselves as a minority. I'm not sure when this concept became so damned fashionable, but it's time to end it. Every time that someone thinks or says "I'm a ______", that person has just self-segregated him/herself from society. This will make the person, and society as a whole, uncomfortable. This is the exact moment that the problem starts. Don't do it. Don't be a _______. Be a human. Be a person. Spend less time looking for differences and more time looking for similarities. You might be amazed at the results.

We are each unique. Every one of us. Therefore, being unique is simply part of the human condition. Being unique loses it's uniqueness because everyone of us is. Just be yourself. Be a good person. Be a part of your community. Be a positive member of society. You can still dress how you want, wear your hair how you want, love who you want, etc.

Don't divide. Unite. The more that we all come together, the fewer people there are to try to separate us.

I'll leave you with the wisdom taught to my great aunt back around 1910, and had apparently been handed down for many generations prior: Do right because it IS right. If you have to question whether it's right - it probably isn't.  

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