When I was a young boy (as every story begins that you don’t want to stick around for the ending) I had this neighbor friend that I would run around with and play make believe. One of our favorite things to do was play Star Wars and WWII battles. My young friend was allowed to play Battlefield on his computer, and I had no war games or video game console of any kind. I enjoyed his games and I sadly admit that he was one of those friends that you wanted to hang out with just to play with his toys or eat his food, you know what I’m saying?
Anyways, whenever we played WWII, he always wanted to be the Nazi’s and did very well in his role with his gruesome ways of killing me. I don’t blame him though because I always was the best American soldier and no one could shoot me, everyone missed. I’d torture me too haha. But at this age I feel like we shouldn’t have known this much about what the Nazi’s had done. I know Battlefield doesn’t go into as much detail as he would.
I had been raised a certain way and I knew that what had occurred at that time was bad regardless of who you were, that’s why I was always the American. It occurred to me the other night that he was blonde-haired, blue-eyed, as were his parents. His father was German though I’m not sure how fresh off the boat he was. I assume, and I could definitely be wrong, that there was teaching, or books, or something coming from the parents to the child making him always want to be the Nazi’s. It could also be the destructive mind of an 8-year-old that always wants to break others block towers and crush paper airplanes like King Kong.
That’s one example I remembered but the other, more prominent one that is undoubtedly true was the change in teaching of history when I moved from Colorado to Texas.
When I got to Texas I was still in high school and in their history classes they taught a completely different civil war than what I was used to. In their textbooks. They taught that the civil war was a truce and that slavery was only a piece of what they were fighting for, but they were more focused on “states rights” and southern independence. The north wanted to preserve the union while also ending slavery. It was bizarre to see teachers teach this completely believing it and not blinking. I had seen both sides of the fence now and gained more than both sides had or seemed to have.
What’s this got to do with anything? Nothing. I just remembered this experience late one night and wanted to share this “scar story” and the lesson I learned.
I have been careful to consider outside points of view in everything I do now. I try to be aware of how others feel, think, and act and don’t want to hurt anyone unintentionally. “There is enough heartache and sorrow in this life without our adding to it” – Dieter F. Uchtdorf
Bullying has run rampant in the hallways of schools, office buildings (now termed harassment), and all over cyber space. Everyone has something to offer this world. Please share this and don’t downgrade others just because they don’t fit in your perfect color-in-the-lines coloring book of life. Some of the most beautiful people I have ever met have been people from outside my circle of immediate friends. After those experiences, my circle gets bigger and bigger. Just be careful of your point of view and what others see as well.
There are always two sides, it increases our compassion and capacity to love others when we see both- have integrity in a loving way...part of growing up. Only the "Sith deal in absolutes"...:)