‘Baa baa black sheep have you any wool?
Yes sir, yes sir, three bags full
One for the master,
One for the dame,
One for the little boy who lives down the lane.”-Baa baa
Black Sheep, Nursery Rhyme
Oh how I loved nursery school! Learning was so much fun and
colourful as the teachers taught using music, visuals and lots of play and let’s
not forget nap time! Gosh! (I stare into a blank space with so much nostalgia).
Hmm, question! Is there more to life than trying to
constantly fit into other people’s moulds? Are my imperfections so great that
those around are blinded to the planks to the planks in their own eyes? Or
maybe I am just not appropriately in the right place?
At one point or another, we all have faced identity issues,
or have suffered from the ‘I don’t fit in’ syndrome. The worst time is the
puberty-adolescent period. As an individual, one tries to live up to
expectations from parents, teachers, peers and society at large. During that
same period, an individual is also trying to find themselves. For other individuals,
this phase they never seem to outgrow. Even unto adulthood, there are
individuals who are completely displaced on the social scale. If not ‘good
enough’ was a word used to bracket these individuals, they would feel honoured
but they are shamelessly called the dirt bags of the world, wastage of airspace
and even outcasts. To note the word ‘outcast’ is one of the harshest terms that
could be used to define another human being as it’s similar to demonizing them
so they should be what exorcised out of society.
“Baa, baa, black sheep have you any wool?” Of course they
have wool. Every human being has something to contribute to society. It’s just
that some people are able to make their contributions earlier than others,
however great or small. It is said that there’s that one family member who no
matter what, manages to ruin Sunday lunch, gets inappropriately drunk, the one
who constantly needs to be bailed out of jail, or the one with the sex scandals
that make a prostitute look like a saint.
Yes, maybe you have that one friend in the click that
everyone does not understand what direction their life is going in. You know
that individual who is always in debt, the one whom you wonder if they are
homeless because they have no fixed aboard or people ask whom they came with.
The black sheep! They are those individuals that asphyxiate everyone
around them because they do not take responsibility for their own actions and often
blame the whole world for what is wrong with them. They have issues!
The black sheep is the one everyone is embarrassed to be
seen with, the one who is purposely not invited to gatherings or events and
people pray that they never receive a call from.
The black sheep. What is the DNA of a black sheep? Who
qualifies as a black sheep? Are we not all in one way or the other, that sheep
that does not blend with the white flock? What if the flock was black, would
the term still exist? What if in that ‘all black’ flock a white sheep was
found, what would the new term be? What, the ‘white sheep’ of society? The
thought of such a term is absurd yet it’s easier to paint individuals with a
certain colour brush and call them names. Interesting!
In my circle there are a lot of black sheep. Most annoy the
hell out of me, I often try to be discreet in being seen with them but honestly
they just need to change for the better. They can still be individualistic
without being a menace to society. I am not an advocate for conformity but I do
believe that one needs to be ‘productive’ and think about the legacy or
footprint that they want to leave on the earth. I doubt that anybody is a
biological mistake. I believe that some individuals are misguided in some way,
misunderstood, so with a little encouragement in the right direction, a little
love and a little faith, something fruitful could come out.
“Yes sir, yes sir, three bags full.” So, black sheep or
white sheep, when shaven they will all produce wool because they are all still
part of the same flock.
The point of the flock of sheep is for all of us on both an individualistic
and group perspective are able to take people different from ourselves or do
not meet societal expectations with a bit more compassion and empathy because
nobody is beyond redemption for as long as they are alive.
P.S.: Always write your own love story!
Ciao!
Lady E
Comments
Post a Comment