Diversity

About a week ago, I was walking with a friend of mine in downtown Montreal and we ran across this drunk Spanish guy who kept repeating "Cabrones los Quebequences!" (meaning "these Quebecers are real bastards"...and yes I had to look in the dictionary...my Spanish isn't all that good). And it made me laugh because you don't see something like that everyday. I like drunk people because they have the courage to tell the world to go to hell and they voice things that most of the time we keep bottled up for fear of offending someone. Now don't get me wrong, I don't think that we should all get drunk and start a fight. I'm actually all against violence. But I do think that the world needs a bit more sincerity... and extravagance. Because let's face it, a world where everyone keeps in their own closed up little world, where everyone minds their own business, where the streets are filled with people going to work and then back home and where everyone does their best to fit it, well it's a pretty boring world. From the hundreds of times I took the metro in the past years, do I remember the people sitting there reading their newspaper or their books? No, I remember the guy who would spit at the closing doors and I remember the guys dressed as pirates who started pounding on the windows of the metro. I think we should have more apparent diversity in this world because all diversity is good. Freaks, weirdos, handicapped people, gays, drunks, homeless people and all the different cultures of the world should be posted on every street corner. Because that way: 1) our days will be more colorful (yes, yes, insensitive freak that I am) and most importantly, 2) we will never forget their existence. We must break from our cozy, safe and protected air-tight bubble and see that the world is not as great as we might think. There is suffering even in the glorious New World. There are people who struggle and who get stepped upon. And on the other hand, there are people who are simply different and who don't ask for anything but to be accepted as they are and not judged for it.

So homework for the end of the week: go out, take a walk and try to find someone who is different. And try to imagine what it's like to be in their shoes for a day.