day three....alike

Keb' Mo's Just Like You.  I've had this song in my head for days.  When I hear something that has meaning, it tends to do that.  I replay it in my head, turn it around.  Like a gem in my hand, I look at it and examine it from every angle.  Thinking about the words of a song is like meditating for me.

The word, the concept in this song is that we are all alike.  No matter who we are, what we look like, where we live, we are all alike....part of the sea of humanity flowing on the planet. 

Believing that, keeps me grounded.  I take care of the mentally ill.  Some may think they are different.  They live with a stigma attached, looked at as "those" people.  But therein lies the twist.  They are just like us.  Trying to live, have families, have homes.  I also teach nursing students, and so I throw away the paperwork most instructors would make them do, and I approach it a different way.  To teach these students that we are all alike, that the patients they will someday be caring for are just like us, I tell them this:

"There is no normal.  There are only shades of normal between us all.  We are all alike, some of us function at a higher level in society, but there is no difference.  Remember that, and remember to treat every human being with respect.  We all deserve that."

If that is the ONLY thing my students learn, then I have succeeded in teaching them one of life's most important lessons.

We are all alike.