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Going through Letters of Note (which is a tremendously amazing site that you should go visit), I came across two letters that really spoke to me because of the real words:
Fiona Apple – Love is love, and there will never be two much
Kurt Vonnegut – I am very real
Both are well worth the time for you to read in full, because they address the pressures of our society to conform to some prescribed form of “accepted” norm. You all know that I am not one of those who particularly holds any norm in high regards, especially considering the current state of our society. But I do hold an immense amount of hope in individual actions which call out the sheer ugliness of status quo, and attempt to remold norms into something much more wholesome and accepting of us all. When we’re continually bombarded by narrow-mindedness and bigotry, then it makes our acceptance of life all the more difficult. But it doesn’t have to be that way, and things are finally starting to change towards a new type of open acceptance. It’s hard to create models of people who are and aren’t accepting (for differentiation and identification), because the demographics are too complex. It can’t be divided by such superficial characteristics of age, appearance, or nationality, but it is definitely easy to spot through words and actions (which are fairly consistent globally).
So, how do we go about becoming more open-minded and accepting, without turning it into a pissing contest that has to have only one winner? We haven’t found the full answer yet, but every day one more person adding to the discussion shines even more light on our way of life and what needs to change (and what needs to be nurtured).
Here are small excerpts from both Fionna and Kurt, which shot straight as an arrow into me:
– Hate has no place in the equation; there is no function for it to perform. Love is love, and there will never be too much. – Fionna Apple
– I read in the newspaper that your community is mystified by the outcry from all over the country about what you have done. Well, you have discovered that Drake is a part of American civilization, and your fellow Americans can’t stand it that you have behaved in such an uncivilized way. Perhaps you will learn from this that books are sacred to free men for very good reasons, and that wars have been fought against nations which hate books and burn them. If you are an American, you must allow all ideas to circulate freely in your community, not merely your own. – Kurt Vonnegut
