Picking Things A Part...

I'm the only one I personally know that really likes this song.  My roommate & I talked a little about it this morning.  Mostly I've heard it labelled, a light weight pop song with no musical merit.  Maybe that's true.  It is a light weight pop song, but I don't think it's without merit.


The whole point of the song is looking at one thing the two characters in the song share.  I find great worth in that. Watch any news program today & all you'll see is people & groups trying to segregate themselves from other people & groups.  They'll say that those people are this or that, while we are not.  We are better & most importantly, we are RIGHT!  To think this long after the formation of a nation that was supposed to be based on individuality we're still fighting to force others to conform & if they don't we ostracize them or worse.  We send out men dressed in white sheets, pro-lifers with shotguns or worse yet those criminals that attacked Matthew Shepard.  What wonderful sneetches we'd make.





It's easy to sit back & tear into all those things that separate us from others.  It takes effort to actually look & see what we all share.  I am male.  I Am living In Oklahoma.  I am Gay.  I am HIV +.   I'm not that political.  I love music.  I like action films.   I live with a roommate.  I have pets.  I could go on, but I hope I've made my point.  Surely with all those things & the things I didn't list I can find some bit of common ground with any one you.   If all those I listed fail, then try this one, I am a living, breathing, human being.


Remember Shylock's oration from Shakespeare's  The Merchant of Venice.  We all know the speech, "If you prick us, do we not bleed?"  After millennia the human race is still fighting over things that really don't matter; race color, beliefs or whatever else is the cause to hunt witches this week.  It would seem that we could come together & just be everyday people like the song says.