Baa baa Black Sheep

‘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