I am not a stranger to the dark
Hide away, they say
‘Cause we don’t want your broken parts
I’ve learned to be ashamed of
all my scars
Run away, they say
No one will love you as you are
In ‘The Greatest Showman’ Barnum holds a party for the great and good. He excludes his circus ‘freaks’ – he’s embarrassed by them. Lettie Lutz, the bearded lady, refuses to be ashamed of who she is…
We live in a world of high expectations; many hide because they’re made to feel ashamed of their differences, their imperfections.
But I won’t let them break me down to dust
I know that there’s a place for us
For we are glorious
I’m honest about myself, accepting myself for whom I am. I’ve made mistakes and messed up; some things I need to put right. But I’m proud, I stand tall – ‘This is Me’!
This includes my family, colour, physical health, mental health, education, addictions, faith, religion, sexuality, weight…
When the sharpest words wanna cut me down
I’m gonna send a flood, gonna drown them out
I am brave, I am bruised
I am who I’m meant to be, this is me
Musing…
- I can’t put my life on hold until I’m the person I wish I was.
- Despite bruising I must continue to be brave: ‘This is me’.
- I should always seek to be a better ‘me’.
- I must be better at accepting others as they are – not expecting them to be like me.
- My faith tells of a Jesus who accepts the unacceptable, loves the unlovely and welcomes the different and excluded.
- I’m proud of what I believe, the God I trust in and the way of life that this leads me to.
Look out ’cause here I come
And I’m marching on to the beat I drum
I’m not scared to be seen
I make no apologies, this is me!
malcolmsmusings.org 
Morning morning,
This became very popular for assemblies for a while with the message that we should all accept each other’s differences – we even had a whole unit of tutorial work and materials put together by the Inclusion Support Services. Then in a pastoral meeting where we discussed it as a number of us were feeling uncomfortable it, we did a complete u-turn on the basis that those who are different for whatever reason, are doing their best, and working so hard to blend in and be ‘normal’ and the message was the opposite of what they wanted and were trying to do. I have a boy with ASD who works so hard during the day to control himself and his outbursts etc that when he goes home he is exhausted – he absolutely wouldn’t want to be the real him and at 14 is too young to be proud of himself and his differences.
I like your starting point of the high expectations though which we totally missed.
Have a good and sunny day, sleepy Fram was bathed in sunshine and absolutely stunning when I ran round it this morning.
K x
On Tue, 23 Mar 2021 at 10:15, malcolmsmusings.org wrote:
> malcolmsmusingscom posted: ” I am not a stranger to the darkHide away, > they say’Cause we don’t want your broken partsI’ve learned to be ashamed > ofall my scarsRun away, they sayNo one will love you as you are In ‘The > Greatest Showman’ Barnum holds a party for the great and goo” >
LikeLike
You’re right. It’s not as simple as some would make out. The message of honesty, acceptance and celebration is often more complicated… And somewhere there is the acknowledgement that we are all disabled and deficient, we all have special needs – we all are that bearded lady.
LikeLike