3/30/14 RMB A New Hat

3/30/14 RMB A New Hat 

Dear Rita Mae Brown,

I like this quote by your contemporary and associate:

A pedestal is as much a prison as any small space. -Gloria Steinem, activist, editor (b. 1934)

What defines us, can also confine us. Can we shift from labels being absolutes, to possible variations? Can one be this AND that, rather than one or the other? A number of examples run through my mind. I resist naming them as that, to some extent, would be kin to name calling.

We are all more similar than different. At our base, our energy is of the same source. Every dimension added, adds something to everyone, a possibility or an opportunity to expand, if only in thought. According to Darwin, it isn’t necessarily the strongest or largest that survives. It is the most adaptable.

I am not a fan of Halloween, after all it is a holiday, yet many adore it and enjoy it immensely. Is the appeal that it is a time when we deem it acceptable to dawn a costume and become someone, or something, other than ourselves?

Here’s a proposition, if it is too daunting and unmanageable to be open minded or accepting or understanding, could we try it on as one would a costume, for a day, or even a moment. Wear a new prospective, as if it were a new hat. Some might find it fits well enough to wear every day of the year. Some might prefer to return to where they feel most comfortable. But I guarantee anyone who tries it, including myself, would never be the same.

When we look through another’s eyes and see what they see, we become something more than we were before, thanks to their vision.

Examining possibilities,

Loraine