I am not a person who makes waves or who joins in protests. I am the quiet one at home who feels that her voice is too small to count, who wishes she were more brave, and yet never declares herself out loud.
I admire those people. The brave ones who risk jail or criticism for a stance they feel strongly about, but it is not me. I grew up too invested in wanting to be pleasing to others so that I would be liked and accepted. I tried too long and too hard to not rock the boat that I have forgotten who I admired…the ones who stood up.
In June I heard on NPR some discussion and reporting about children denied healthcare because they were transgendered. Even kids who were in the midst of specialized healthcare for gender issues would be cut off.
I don’t know where I have been, as this is not a new issue and has been raging around our nation in various forms for a while. Still, it struck me hard. So I reached out to a transperson I knew. And, suddenly, hearing his story, I found my heart broken.
There is a lot of hate in our world. There always seems to have been a lot. History can be found for many peoples and groups who have been so hated that their fellow countrymen and women have tried to annihilate them. It was and is. And, still it surprises me…and causes me heart sickness.
I have spent the past several weeks trying to figure out how my small voice could be expressed…and whether it should be. Would anyone want to hear what I thought? Would voicing my thoughts about this topic do any good in the large scheme of the world? Why bother? It will only bring out the negatives.
And, yet, I cannot let the idea go that I should write about transgender hate specifically and hate generally. And maybe raise my small voice on other issues facing our society.
I don’t know if it will reach anyone or stir a hornet’s nest. I don’t know if it will be but one more butterfly beat offered into the world or just a pebble falling into the water. I only know that I need to write.
I have a propensity for planning to do lots of things and starting many of them…but, ultimately not carrying through. Actually, that is partially in error. It is not that I do not carry through for lack of interest or inability. It is that other things take precedence in my day and so, inadvertently, projects become idle. This one did.
All of that is an intro into a new style of writing for me. Although this one will be on my old blog site, I will be moving the ones to follow onto a new blog. The new blog will have some of the same reflective flavor as my morning FB post. It will be my attempt to bring some thinking to the issues in this world…and, if nothing else, it will help me clarify my own thinking.
Now to find a place for this new blog to reside. Wish me luck.
My new blog will be called The World As I See It. Now to figure out how to set up this new site.
Feathers of My Mind 