- Crippling fears
- Abuse in our past
- Anger management issues
- Addictions
- Chronic health concerns
If we are
all flawed, why do some of us feel we have the right, or the need, to harass
those who may have more obvious “imperfections”? That’s a good question!
I propose
that people with limitations are judged for three reasons:
- They slow us down. (As a society, we have never been more impatient, self-centered, and angry.)
- They provide a convenient excuse for some people to feel superior.
- We may feel they are “different” from us. That’s always intimidating. (Deep inside, we fear what we do not understand. Many of us act out that anxiety with anger.)
Examples of Mistreatment
Karen
She is a
strong lady I met online. She has seizures. I assume that means she has
epilepsy. During her school days, Karen was called names, lied about, and held
down and beaten up by groups of girls.
Jennifer
She is
another friend I met through social media. She had a brain tumor and asthma.
While in school, Jennifer was bullied so severely she felt she was going to
stop breathing. She was exposed to
hitting, getting her hair pulled, being spit upon, and various threats. A
fellow student actually said she hoped Jennifer would die.
My Story (Part of it)
I was
harassed during my entire school career. However, I would like to focus on the
mistreatment I received at several jobs. I am gluten intolerant; but, I didn’t know
that until about eight years ago.
To make a long story short, eating gluten for
decades messed up many systems in my body. Also, it damaged my thought
processes. It made me socially awkward, and it slowed my thinking down.
I was fired
from two positions because I was considered to be “slow”. I wasn’t catching on to certain duties in a
timely manner. I made mistakes out of ignorance and confusion. My direct
supervisors yelled at me, which made me even more slow and confused. Thus, a
vicious cycle began.
At one
temporary job, my boss began screaming and laughing at me almost from the
beginning. I was in tears by the time she called me “Stupid” at the end of my
shift.
How Can we Show More Compassion?
The answer is simple: treat
everyone the way you would like to be treated. In other words, follow
the universal Golden Rule. For example, I have substitute taught various
students with physical and mental challenges. At such times, I have
been counseled (by teachers) to do the following:
- React to the students in a certain way.
- Keep my voice modulated just so.
- Monitor the child’s interactions with other pupils.
In
the end, the whole situation boils down to showing respect; it’s not
confusing. We can be nurturing by being our true, kindest selves.
The
deepest form of kindness, or respect, is to handle everyone as an
equal—no more, no less. The assumption of equality is the greatest show
of empathy. After all, how can we truly identify with a person if we
think they’re “inferior”? Many examples in history prove that we cannot.
The
George Bernard Shaw play, Pygmalion (which was made into the classic
musical, My Fair Lady) provides a great illustration of treating all
people with deference. The main character, Eliza Doolittle, sells
flowers in London. However, on a dare, the emotionally distant Professor
Henry Higgins takes on the job of tutoring her.
He doesn’t
treat Eliza well, or relate to her way of thinking. In contrast, his
friend, Colonel Pickering, is kind, gentle, and respectful. The
following is a direct quote from Eliza (to Colonel Pickering) in Act 5:
I shall always be a flower girl to Professor
Higgins, because he always treats me as a flower girl, and always will, but I
know I can be a lady to you, because you always treat me as a lady, and always
will.
Do you treat “flower girls” as “duchesses”?
No comments:
Post a Comment