So Much To Say Today

You never know what you had until it’s gone, that saying irritates me. How can one not know what they have? Are they living in a world so selfish that they can’t see what is right in front of them? Why do people feel the need to throw away everything for something that is fleeting?
I cut my teeth on science fiction; literally, the first television show I have the most vivid memory of is Star Trek, the original, just in case there were questions regarding my age. A follow up on that were old horror movies on Saturday afternoons, Bela Lugosi, Lon Chaney and Boris Karloff were the order of the day. I was transported to a different place, a different time. Both futuristic and in the past, different planets, different continents, it was a unique way to grow up.
I learned so much from watching these shows, differences were to be celebrated not feared, what some see as monstrous, others see as miraculous. Fear incites atrocious behavior, and being a blood-sucking creature is bad.
Being human has its downfalls, we are fraught with frailties beyond the physical, what we don’t understand we ridicule and sometimes literally beat to death. What a horrific way to live, constantly fearing what one doesn’t understand, what is different.
I, for one, don’t understand it, when I was in elementary school I didn’t think I was human due to what I had watched at an early age. I didn’t think like everyone else, I craved the unknown, I wanted to be different, I knew I didn’t want to be one of the villagers killing the “monster”. When all along the monster was inside of them, the villagers were the monster, as I got older I realized that as a human I have the ability to not become one of them. I had the ability to make a choice, to become something else, someone else, embracing differences.
Yes, I was the weird kid in school; never quite fitting in, I read a lot, A LOT, as Tammi can tell you. I have always said whatever popped into my head; I have learned to temper that with a little common sense. I wore what I wanted, I didn’t follow the crowd, I was a fully functioning human at a young age.
I wasn’t bullied, because, well honestly, I was a little scary, ok, more than a little, I could take up for myself and didn’t put up with anything. I didn’t care what people thought about me and didn’t care what they said about me.
I honestly don’t understand why parents are not teaching their children to stand up for themselves against bullies, and I don’t understand how I have digressed into this topic. However, while I am here, people, teach your children fortitude, teach them that their differences are to be celebrated and teach them to stand up for themselves, where they can. I am not speaking about children who have disabilities, I am talking about the children that are for all intents and purposes, “normal” I use quotation marks because I really have no definition of what normal is, but in this instance I am speaking to the ones that have no physical limitations, no emotional limitations and are not fighting a learning disability.
For the parents of the bullies, what is wrong with you? You know your kid is mean! They had to learn it somewhere, I am guessing at home, since that is where I learned to stand up for people who have a hard time standing up for themselves. My grandpa taught me that, take a stand, don’t allow anyone to run over you or anyone else.
Isn’t that what this country was founded on, taking a stand? Standing up for the “little” guy and ourselves?