Some days, there is a reaction to life that just erupts and must be given voice...
Let’s say, just for illustration, that I believe I am a swan.
Really. I am convinced a biological mistake happened and I have the soul of a swan. I was never meant to be human...I was meant to be beautiful and graceful.
I was meant to fly.
And, let’s say that I was able to find a doctor who, for a price, would surgically implant feathers into my arms and shoulders and back.
If you loved me, would you encourage me to be my true self, the swan? Would you help me raise funds so that I could afford the multiple surgeries to turn myself into a feathered being? Would you enable my starvation diet, so that I could become as thin and light as air? Would you defend me against the bullies around who told me I was never a swan, would never be a swan and would never fly?
Would you listen to my dreams of flying, of soaring, of being free of gravity?
Would you stand ready with the video camera on the fateful day when the surgeries are complete and I spread my altered arms and leap into the sky from the rim of Little River Canyon, believing I will soar and swoop, just as a swan would?
At my funeral, would you speak movingly of my bravery to be true to myself?
If you loved me?
And, hey, maybe your kid is a swan. I mean, she has dreams of flying, too, right? How young will he be when the burning desire to soar in the sky seizes him? If they show any signs of believing they’re swans, you need to act on it right away. If you start them young, before they ever fight the battles I fought (may I rest in peace) to be a swan, maybe it will be easier for them.
They could have the feathers implanted and become accustomed to them as they grow older. Medically stunt their growth, so they stay small and light and more likely to fly.
Of course, society will have to change to deal with kids with feathers. Fashions will have to change...hey, maybe some designer will get the idea to make clothes with feathers, so ordinary kids, kids who never thought of being a swan, can be cool like the feathered kids.
Anyone who dares to mention that the kids’ bones are full of marrow, and not light and hollow, like a swan’s, or that their chest muscles were never shaped properly to move wings, or that the artificial feathers could never function like the feathers of a creature who has flight in the DNA of every cell of its body must be silenced and shamed for their hatred of these brave children who are going to fly someday.
And when the day comes when the children launch themselves into the elaborate illusion for which they have sacrificed their humanity...will you cradle their broken bodies, and tell them how proud you are of them, as the lie kills them?
If you really love them?
Exactly. We are made in His image, for a purpose which He had in mind at our creation. I'm praying for those that have been blinded by mental illness.
ReplyDelete