This is a story about a boy named Johnny who found a place he thought he could call his own, a playground of people like him that liked what he did. He thought he could make friends there and was friendly and fun loving with lots of people there of which many seemed to enjoy him a great deal at first.
Sometimes meeting people you make such good great friends with them that all seems perfectly well and fantastic that you are happy and full of happiness and smiles inside, so greatful that you happened to have met such an incredible person in your life and connected with them so easily. They know so much more about so many things you happen to like and would like to know more about.
So then why is it that others seem to want to run this person off, chase them away and be mean to them? Why do they suddenly not like them when all they have ever been is nice to everyone you have ever seen? You start to wonder and you talk to people but no one can really tell you specific reasons for why they do not like this particular person. You search hard, you look into everything you can, you talk to everyone, serching, looking and investigating but nothing comes up. You cannot understand why others may not like Johnny, why they are being mean to him and trying to run him off or scare him away. He seems okay to you, and no one says anything bad about him other than the fact he is new, so is being new a reason for them to chase Johnny off the playground?
You nurture and help him because afterall we are a community, a family and we are here to help each other out and support each other in bad times when we need it most. So why is it that people are so trained on pushing away those who they think are not "perfect in their eyes" as I put it? If we do not fit into a perfect puzzle then we are cast aside and labeled odd ducks out. Wasn't that why we created a community to begin with? We need to show love and support not cast away those who need us the most because you never know what someone is going through in their own real life, what they have to deal with or how they are feeling. Johnny only came to the playground looking for community and friends like him, and yet because he was new, because he was not the same as everyone else he was cast out and pushed aside like yesterday's newspaper.
It takes only a moment to forgive someone and say hello and be nice. To swallow your pride and say "I'm sorry" and let whatever issues you have drop. Yet it is so easy to turn your back and ignore someone completely, to pretend they don't exsist at all, which in reality can cause a serious pain deeper than you can even imagine and cause serious harm in the long run. It is much the same as being ignored, how would you feel about being in the same room with many other people and completely ignored as if you did not even exsist? This is how some people get treated and it is hard for me to understand why, beyond the predators and trolls that is.
My point is this, that pain that is inflicted, the damage that is done and forever caused can never be withdrawn and because most of the time pride gets in the way for people, is left ignored. So what is the outcome of this scenerio you ask why does it matter if Johnny is hated by everyone on the playground? What does it matter if no one likes him he can find somewhere else to play and new people to play with right? What if Johnny has had enough, goes home heart sick over the cruelty of it all, finds a knife and ends it all? Then there will be no more story for Johnny, no more people for him to play with, no second chances for him because no one wanted to help him or give him support when he came looking for it in the first place.
Don't be THAT person to push someone to "Johnny's edge", support them, befriend them and help them. Forgive them when they are mean after you clear your head and have thought about whatever happened. Say you are sorry, Talk easily and remember everyone means something to someone out there because regardless of what they identify as (Dom, switch, sub, trans) everyone is a person first that needs to cared for and addressed.
