Tolerance. Tolerance is a
really neat word. I read a series of books by a man who
survived the bombing of Hiroshima, the series of books being
comic books. "
Barefoot Gen: a Cartoon Story of Life Before/During/After the Bomb." Funny, I read all these with a low grade
horror sunk deep in my
abdomen... like I was somehow pregnant with the
repulsion for war, and human tyranny in
general. I made it through these graphic books, and I thought it taught me
a lesson. It did, but I
wonder if it was enough.
I am a slender girl. No arguments there. My ex-boyfriend and I used to joke often about each other
being fat, it's a condition we were both rather
disgusted by... and kind of scared of. Maintaining a reasonable degree of control over one's body is
important... most people would agree.
So
what does this have to do with tolerance?
One time while Scott & I were walking into
Meijer's to pick up
photos, we saw an
obese woman in a red shirt. I leaned over and
snicker whispered to Scott, "
Would you still love me if I looked like that?" He replied that he would. Then he nodded toward an obese woman in a
green shirt. "You can't look like that, though." I looked up, and the woman's face and arms were absolutely
covered in thick scars that were obviously the product of
severe burns. We were both
fell silent as we walked into the store. Half of me wanted to
scream at him for being so callous, how could he be so mean... and then I
realized that I was just as much of a jerk. I don't think he'd seen her face when he made the
remark.
(I asked him later, and he hadn't.)
That's what stopped me. That and the realization that I was a huge
jerk.
I guess that's what this has to do with tolerance. People (
like me) can look at news stories and feel
terrible for people afflicted with the horror of burns, or
leprosy, or homelessness... but on the street, are you the same person as when you
sit at cnn.com and gasp at the evils of society? Or are you the jerk who
walks by like it's not affecting you? I guess I
discovered who I was, and for the past 4 years now, I've been trying to change that. Some things should not be tolerated.