And God made Eve from Adam’s rib…. Not from the same stuff Adam was made from—Why is that? did it run out of materials?
I keep hearing, “Don’t be divisive. Don’t let the government turn us against each other.” But the truth is, the division has been ingrained in society since the beginning of civilization—black versus white, men versus women, religion against religion, culture clashing with culture, and anything unfamiliar set against what we think we understand. Division isn’t something new; it’s the foundation we’ve been built on.
And that’s just what was visible—what people were allowed to acknowledge. Same-sex relationships were forced into the shadows. Boys who showed emotion were beaten by fathers trapped in their own hardened shells, taught that vulnerability was a weakness, that burdens were to be carried alone, or else they’d be punished for exposing an imagined fragility.
“We must learn to live together as brothers and sisters or perish together as fools.” – Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
Reality is far more vast and complex than we often acknowledge. We are intricate combinations of chemical and physiological reactions, capable of producing trillions of unique ways to exist. But what happens when a sheltered person, with little to no exposure to different perspectives, encounters something they don’t understand. What ensues when they’ve been taught from a book to fear or avoid it?
Let’s flip the perspective. Imagine you’re gay, but you live in a time, culture, or religious community that condemns your very existence. Home isn’t safe. Schools offer no refuge. Even your faith—the thing meant to provide love and guidance—breeds the hatred that surrounds you, poisoning the hearts of those who are supposed to love you unconditionally.
What do you do? Too often, as we’ve seen, that hatred turns inward. You despise yourself. You lash out at others. You direct your pain toward those who dare to live openly and proudly—because why should they get to be free when you’ve been beaten down, threatened, or even disowned by your own family? Some, feeling utterly alone, see no way out and take their own lives. And this happens far more often than we’re led to believe.
“Be who you are and say what you feel, because those who mind don’t matter, and those who matter don’t mind.” – Bernard M. Baruch
Money isn’t the answer to everything. It’s self-confidence. It’s the freedom to exist. There are or were laws to stop violent behavior, shielding us from one person’s beliefs/religion from dictating how we should live and who we should worship. It should be simple. We are born, we learn, we work hard, and we have our own personal successes, whether in achievements or love with a body of power helping us where we might need that extra assistance to succeed.
Mel Evers wonders about it all 