FEATHERED AND FABULOUS…

Today, I noticed a chicken decorated with an abundance of feathers on its feet. Besides its unique feature, It seemed to be rather isolated from the rest of the chicken that enjoyed the ambiance of where I was and I couldn’t help but think about whether chicken understand the idea of discrimination like humans too.

What if this isolated chicken I saw was discriminated and bullied by his fellow chicken for having extra feathers on his feet? What if he wishes he could cut it off? What if he hates his extra feathers?… As wild a thought as I think it might be what if chicken have feelings and this one chicken wishes to be killed but its owner is waiting for Christmas to grant It’s wish.

But as they say, there are two sides to every story. What if this chicken chose to isolate itself because it doesn’t feel good enough to walk around with his fellow chicken or it hates the rest for not looking like it!

However, I didn’t notice this chicken because it was a chicken like every other chicken. It stole my attention because it was different, because it’s extra feet feathers made it unique and I think people should see themselves as this chicken too- not to become chicken, but to understand that by default differences are a natural part of our world.

There will always be a chicken with extra feathers on it’s feet, a black chicken, a brown chicken, a white chicken and mixed coloured chick somewhere and a chicken with no feathers too.

Life doesn’t end because differences exist. The isolated chicken I saw kept doing whatever it is that it was doing like the world was created for it alone. I think it embraced its difference and I also think discrimination and its relatives exist because we care so much about our differences we allow them to control how we think.

What if we focused more on embracing our uniqueness, practiced empathy more, challenged unnecessary stereotypes and constantly supported diversity. Would that make a difference?

Today I saw myself in that chicken. For the fact that I don’t feel pretty enough because I am fat and so I isolate myself one or two times from the crowd because I am afraid of whether they like me enough. Lucky for me my crowd doesn’t push me aside because of it, but I’ve seen people isolated and pushed aside because of they were fat. Sad reality. As I wrote earlier, Life doesn’t end because differences exist.  I hope our differences don’t become the end beyond the end for us.

Let’s embrace our uniqueness and support each other in our differences. What kind of world could we create if we did?

I believe it could be a world filled with so many beautiful colours, including the ones we haven’t experienced yet.