I love diversity, simply put. I relish in hearing others' ideas and thoughts even though I may not agree or believe or want to live the way someone else does, but almost every time I encounter a new person or a new thought process, I learn something. About that person, about lives different from mine and about myself. I just spent yet another glorious weekend experiencing music with a menagerie of robust, talented, gorgeous women (no offense men, you are too) and met some new friends and spent time with some I already knew. I swear, if I could live my life doing THAT, I'd be a happy camper. Probably a drunk, but happy nonetheless.
On this trip, I was pretty much odd woman out - they have all traveled and known each other for some years, and I was a first-timer. And for one with my personality, that can be dangerous skies to fly in with a flock of other women of the like - it's like sticking us all in an aviary with a bird feeder full of booze and expecting perfect formation in flight at all times and no flying feathers. Impossible. Luckily, we were all smart enough to know when to fly out and flap our wings and maybe take a nap. Or lay an egg.
However, some people are not that smart. They literally have bird brains and I, unfortunately, encountered one the other day. Let me begin by saying, I really don't give a chicken shit what people think of me. Of course, you must treat people with kindness and respect - I never want to or mean to hurt a person's feelings and if I do, will be the first to recognize and make amends whether you're family, friend or stranger. But as far as who I am at the core, well that cake has been baked. So I'm talking with this person I'd just met and we're sharing life stuff - kids, family, career, places in life, stories - and this person, we'll just call them "Horse's Ass", took a liking to me... and I to them... until... they noticed my tattoo. Gasp. To make a semi-long story really short - because it became really short after Horse's Ass said (with a look of disgust) "Why would a beautiful, successful woman like you scar her body like that?". At which point I took notice of how big, crooked and buck Horse's Ass' teeth were, but did I ask said person why they never considered braces? NOOOOO, I did not. I simply answered: "Because I'm a woman who expresses herself in ways you would never understand and is not fearful of being different. And just because I am not like you, does not make me scarred, it simply makes me different." Their jaw dropped open and let me tell you, Horse's Ass had horse breath too.
So we've had birds and horses in this story, and here's the moral: Birds of different feathers can flock together, our feathers just may be of different colors and fly in different directions. But a horse's ass is always a horse's ass.
This is a Doing What I Know.
