Rants on thought control

It was intended to be an innocent remark. The young boy taking my groceries to the car asked me which direction we were heading. I said, “That way,” and pointed. Then I made a comment about the lively young girls in front of us. I expected him to reply either, “I already have a girlfriend,” or “They’re not my type.”

He did neither. He said it was wrong to think that way. Shivers ran down my spine. Thinking is wrong? What has this world come to when thinking is considered wrong? What was it that he was thinking? I thought freedom of speech was supposed to be one of our most basic freedoms. Now I find out that merely thinking can be considered wrong.

The girls in question were lithe and lean and full of life. They reminded me of young colts, excuse me, fillies, that were prancing around the pasture on a warm spring day. They were absolutely beautiful and pure as sunshine. They were full of life, energy and the world was at their feet, there for the taking.

I was thinking that it had been a really long time since I had been so full of possibility. It seems like forever since I was so thin and innocent. I was feeling a bit of nostalgia for days gone by. Then the boy reminded me of the times we live in. It seems to me that today is even more puritanical than when the Puritans first landed in this country. We may show our bellybuttons but are forbidden to show our real selves.

The rules are different now. Don’t notice that girls on the edge of adulthood are glowing with health and beauty. Don’t notice that people are different colors and have different cultures, different values. Pretend that we are all identical in mind and spirit. Don’t post the honor roll any more because that just points out that some kids can’t keep up with required schoolwork. Never mind that those same kids excel in other areas or that perfect grades don’t assure one of success in real life. Pretend that we are all identical and mediocre.

We have come to expect our schools to meet the challenge of making sure that we all have the exact same knowledge by the time we graduate. It doesn’t matter that acquiring that knowledge is all but impossible for some. It is irrelevant that there are children whose home lives are too horrible to contemplate or that some have health or physical problems that make learning impossible. Enculturation and assimilation must be complete. There are no acceptable excuses.

Everywhere we are bombarded with messages that tell us that if we just try hard enough we can be as thin as a super model, as strong as an ox, as rich as Bill Gates and on and on and on. If we fail, it is our own fault.

Guess what. It’s all a lie. We are not all the same. We don’t have the same abilities, or even the same possibilities. Some of us can play music and no matter how hard we practice some of us are unable to do more than play the notes. Some of us can put sentences together in a coherent fashion and some of us can’t. Those born to wealth have an entirely different set of chances than those born into poverty.

The simple truth is that nobody can do or be everything. We each have talents and abilities that others can’t replicate. We are each unique in mind and spirit. Our bodies are unique. Our souls are unique. We are each precious and deserving of respect. I think it is about time that we celebrate our differences instead of ignoring them.

It’s about time that we can look at a young person and see beauty and nothing else. We should start appreciating each other for what we can do rather than seeing only flaws and shortcomings. Sadly, that will never happen. Instead we set up rules for ourselves that determine what is wrong and what is right so that a young boy can’t even appreciate the sheer beauty of a young girl without feeling that he is doing something immoral.

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