Mind-Body-Spirit, Humanity's Flexible Friend

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/R._N._Taber

Someone recently commented to me that, “I have no problem with gay people as such. But, like all those who choose to flout convention, they are attention seekers and would probably change their tune quick enough if they didn’t get any.”

I couldn’t believe my ears, especially as it was clear the guy was sincere. I put to him that sexuality is in the genes and has nothing to do with deliberately choosing to flout convention or be a focus of attention.

He would have none of it. “Where would society be without its conventions,” he demanded. “Without golden rules to live by, you’d have anarchy.”

Funny, I had never thought of myself as an anarchist…until now! Yes, of course we need golden rules to live by. At the same time, thank goodness for some golden exceptions, among which sexuality is but one ...

'Conventional people are roused to fury by departures from convention, largely because they regard such departures as a criticism of themselves.' – Bertrand Russell 

“Few people are capable of expressing with equanimity opinions which differ from the prejudices of their social environment. Most people are incapable of forming such opinions." – Albert Einstein (Essay to Leo Baeck, 1953)

"It is not the strongest of the species that survives nor the most intelligent that survives. It is the one   that is most adaptable to change." - Charles Darwin

MIND-BODY-SPIRIT, HUMANITY'S FLEXIBLE FRIEND

I know my place, would teach

others, though some refuse to learn,

take me for an enemy, refuse

to see I have their well-being at heart,

would prefer not to toss them

like flotsam and jetsam on such waves

as mother-god Society enjoys

making for those who dare question

if its integrity fit for purpose

I know my place, would teach

others to know theirs, better by far

to tread in footprints already

leading the way across snow and ice

than take another, untested path,

making out it will lead somewhere

when there’s no real guarantee

it will lead anywhere at all, followers

as like as not heading for a fall

I know my place, would plead

with others to know theirs, trusting

to be led by my moral compass

into the quiet waters of expediency,

leaving politics and religions

free to hoist colours flapping madly

in a breeze, rightly keen to please,

condemning certain rites of sexuality

likely to put humanity on the spot

My place, rejecting any re-invention

of society's old stand-by, convention

Copyright R. N. Taber, 2010; 2016