Octagon Pie

OCTAGON PIE

I hate labels, but if you must label me then I prefer the title H.A-ist. What is a H.A-ist ? you ask, well it is a label I made up to describe myself, and many other people I know. It is an acronym for Humanity Assessor, or in this case assessmentist. It’s a very fitting label, you see, some people I like, some people I love and some people I hate, but rest assure that none of my emotions are based on the octagon pie of race, ethnic, culture, gender, age, intelligence, religion, appearance, financial status, gender identity or lifestyle. They are based on the personality of the people I meet, interact or work with.                                                                                       When I meet people, I assess their personality on several gauges, are they funny? Are they kind to animals? Are they kind to people? Are they rude? Are they arrogant? Are they proud of who they are? Are they someone I want to be proud to call my friend and honored to be theirs?                                                So often we hear the saying “The issue isn’t black and white, there is a lot of grey area” well in my opinion it isn’t any of those colors, the world and its issues are Tie-dye. A beautiful combination of overlapping colors each creating a unique design, and in order to have a beautiful pattern we need more than one color. The problems arise when every design wants their own color to dominate, causing harmony to leave what could have been a beautiful combination.                                            Tye-dyeing is a technique that needs to be taught, even if the teacher only likes their own dominant color, it is possible. Let me explain my childhood and you will see what I mean.                                                                          I am from a tye-dyed family, my aunt and uncle had 7 children, 3 were adopted, they were of 2 different races, which meant 3 races one family. I am 1 of 5 children in my family, where our father was Irish and our mother was native. So growing up, racism was never tolerated, actually most of the time we never even thought about it, we were all just cousins having fun together. Anyhow, life went on as normal until one day while I was away at college, I got a call from my sister telling me that our parents just FREAKED OUT on our brother and his new girlfriend he had brought home to meet them. The reason was her color, they had yelled and screamed racist remarks and told them to get her out of the house, there was no way they were having mixed grandchildren. Well you can imagine the shock of my siblings and I; we had never heard a racist remark from them, we were mixed, what the hell was going on? Sadly my brother and her broke up and the family never spoke of it. One day 10 years later my dad and I were alone watching my newborn son asleep in his cradle, as we talked about parenting. I reminded him of that day, he hung his head down and said they regretted it, when I asked him why they reacted that way, he said “We are racist” I said “We never knew that, why did you raise us not to be?” his unforgettable answer was “Because we knew it was wrong”

So I have proof that this issue or any issue that a person knows in their heart is wrong, does not have to be taught to the next generation. I am grateful everyday that my parents had the heart, the discipline and the courage teach me to be (as dad would say) “what he wasn’t” - color blind <3

Humans seem to be the only thing on the globe, that fights change. If we look at nature: plants, animals, even germs, we see it adapts and changes to meet the changes in the environmental conditions, they do this for survival, and in doing so, it makes it stronger. Change is a scary thing sometimes, and not everyone can change easily. Some changes are easy, some are hard and some seem impossible, but if we think of just how far the world has come, how many incredible changes that have happened, then we can look towards the future with hope. I do not believe in the word impossible, I prefer to read it as I’m possible, and if I am possible for change than maybe it can have a domino effect down the lines of people I meet or the future generations of mine. Another analogy (which I use a lot of them) is: Think of your actions, words and what you teach children, as a tire: if you have a flat tire, you change it, if you don’t and continue to drive on it, it can destroy the rim the bearing the axles and eventually the whole car, because at some point, that flat tire will cause an accident, even if you are not the driver at the time. Think about how even a bad tire can blow out at any second and life as you know it could change. So if you are a flat or bad tire, change, if someone you know is, then be the jack. To this day I have friends from all over the world, every walk of life, or the funny old saying “every size, shape and color” Each of them has brought something special into my life and I hope that I left something special in theirs. I cant imagine living in a carbon copy world, the differences and similarities that I share with my friends, make my life richer in so many ways. Embrace and share, learn and discover, LIFE is so much more than we see on the surface, I will continue to be color blind, and am working on x-ray vision. If my story touched you, then I encourage you to get a tye-dyed shirt and a fabric marker, put a giant H.A-ist on it and wear it proudly. Because Equality for all lives matters, we must change the future for our world to UNITY FOR ALL.