The adjuration to be "normal" seems shockingly repellent to me; I see neither hope nor comfort in sinking to that low level. I think it is ignorance that makes people think of abnormality only with horror and allows them to remain undismayed at the proximity of "normal" to average and mediocre. For surely anyone who achieves anything is, a priori, abnormal.
Man, sometimes you are clueless. You don__ even see what__ happening._ He perched himself on the arm of the couch so he could look down at Turk. __t__ not just about freaks. I mean, you__e the guy who thinks of ideas and all, but you__e missing it. You don__ even notice that the whole council is either black or Mexican. See, that__ what__ happening: it__ all these minorities hooked up with freaks.__he wheels in Turk__ mind began to turn slowly. But they were picking up speed. __amal__ with us and he__ black.___o? We use Jamal. He gets us into Albert__. You do what you gotta do. All I__ saying is, you and me, we__e normal people. We__e not black or queer or Mexican. And we__e the ones digging toilets. How come?__urk knew the answer: because they had failed in their attempt to take over. But he__ never thought about this new angle.__strid__ a normal white person,_ Turk argued halfheartedly. __o__ Sam.___am__ a freak, and I think he might even be a Jew,_ Lance said. His eyes were glittering. He was showing his teeth, grinning as he talked. It wasn__ a good look for him. __nd Astrid? She__ not even on the council anymore.
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Man, sometimes you are clueless. You don__ even see what__ happening._ He perched himself on the arm of the couch so he could look down at Turk. __t__ not just about freaks. I mean, you__e the guy who thinks of ideas and all, but you__e missing it. You don__ even notice that the whole council is either black or Mexican. See, that__ what__ happening: it__ all these minorities hooked up with freaks.__he wheels in Turk__ mind began to turn slowly. But they were picking up speed. __amal__ with us and he__ black.___o? We use Jamal. He gets us into Albert__. You do what you gotta do. All I__ saying is, you and me, we__e normal people. We__e not black or queer or Mexican. And we__e the ones digging toilets. How come?__urk knew the answer: because they had failed in their attempt to take over. But he__ never thought about this new angle.__strid__ a normal white person,_ Turk argued halfheartedly. __o__ Sam.___am__ a freak, and I think he might even be a Jew,_ Lance said. His eyes were glittering. He was showing his teeth, grinning as he talked. It wasn__ a good look for him. __nd Astrid? She__ not even on the council anymore.
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What if the differences between social strata stem not from genomics or inherent xcellence or even dollars, but merely differences in knowledge? Would this not mean the whole Pyramid is built on shifting sands?" I speculated such a suggestion could be seen as a serious deviancy. Melphi seemed delited. "Try this for deviancy: fabricants are mirrors held up to purebloods' consciences; what purebloods see reflected there sickens them. So they blame you for holding up the mirror." I hid my shock by asking when purebloods might blame themselves. Melphi relplied, "History suggests, not until they are made to.
THE CONSCIOUS HUMANYou are not just white,but a rainbow of colors.You are not just black,but golden.You are not just a nationality,but a citizen of the world.You are not just for the right or left,but for what is right over the wrong.You are not just rich or poor,but always wealthy in the mind and heart.You are not perfect, but flawed.You are flawed, but you are just.You may just be conscious human,but you are also a magnificentreflection of God.Suzy Kassem__he Conscious Human_ Poetry by Suzy Kassem
The survivor spoke to us though, or tried to. Mumbling through that matted brown beard of his, pale as death itself. I can__ say now if it was weakness from his wounds or what it was _ but we struggled to understand him. In fact we got nothing intelligible from him at all then. He seemed afraid, like any dying man probably would be, but he did seem more terrified than any dying man I__e seen before _ and I__e seen a few in my time. Let me tell you, Corsair or not, he grabbed whatever hand would hold his, and clenched it so tight his knuckles turned white! He kept fading out as we carried him on the stretcher board the medics brought with them. Looking back, I think he tried to warn us, poor bastard. He tried to tell us to leave him behind and go, but we wouldn__ listen. We thought we were better than the Corsairs, remember? We thought we would be all moral and upright and try to help him. __on__ say I didn__ warn you._ were the last words he said before losing consciousness. At least, those that we could make out. At the end of it all, he was right _ as it turned out, we couldn__ even help ourselves.
Understanding what it means to die, to sever oneself of the foolish hope for immortality, is what allows human beings the capability to appreciate simple pleasures and endure whatever hardships living a full life requires. Eternity is beautiful whereas time is unredeemable and problematic. Our faith, our hopes, and our love exist only in points of time. We discover eternity by avoiding the snares of prejudice and mental delusion, using the memory of whole civilizations to understand the past, and employing human consciousness to transcend fluctuations in time.
Over the years, we had been as cautious as blindfolded men feeling their way around a mysterious beast, trying to extrapolate what was between us without communicating the knowledge that would have illuminated everything. Until that morning, when we took the blindfolds off, and discovered we were face to face with each other.