Preamble:
Mods and rockers and commies and Tories and parents and kids and bosses and unions and girls and boys and blacks and whites and gays and straight and Christians and pagans and posh gits and gutter trash and able bodied and disabled and haves and have-nots and northerners and southerners and ......
Must it always be us and them?
Must you always be other to me?
Can I not lift you on my wings?
Or you lift me on yours?
Can it not be us and we?
Certain to have people thinking - always a worthwhile thing.
Maybe some of this comes - and will always do so - from the
herd/crowd instinct provided by that old Mother Nature for
protection. And in strictly human terms, the fact that many feel that they succeed in spite of others rather than because of them...the competitive streak emerging, again arguably the result of nature's inbuilt planning blueprint
for the species. Or, indeed. any species in the "race for
survival".
Apparently there's a whole scientific explanation about the threat system in our brains that hasn't evolved from when we lived in fear of being mugged by a woolly mammoth, so we react to 'others' as if they were that mammoth i.e.the enemy even if it's just a singing postman with a funny haircut and a tattoo.
Anyhoo thanks for responding. It's always interesting to get your (I was going to say'others' but thought better of it)take on things.
<Deleted User> (13762)
Sat 7th Jul 2018 08:43
blimey Hazel you got my head in a real flutter with this one - I agree so much yet people do love their labels (I sound like Frank Skinner deciding whether or not to put labels in Room 101). Just the other day I heard about a lad who had a test which put him somewhere on the lower reaches of the spectrum but how that will help him in any way who knows? Has society dulled the minds of the masses to such a degree that now they need a label to self-identify with and make their tedious lives bearable . . . ?
Hi there Hazel,
A lovely sentiment expressed here. Oh, and congratulations on winning poem of the week too! Well deserved!
Cheers,
Suki
Frances Macaulay Forde
Sat 7th Jul 2018 02:25
So true...
I rue labels
putting distance
between generations and
community.
(Sorry not quite a French Cinquain... needs more work.)
<Deleted User> (19421)
Fri 6th Jul 2018 17:12
Fab Hazel, I couldn’t agree more. us and them to often a recipe for division and hatred...
Although I would struggle with Tory and me....?
Hazel,
I am with you all the way with this poem. It reminds me of Religious Communities of monks and nuns where they are forbidden to say mine and yours as they must say ours instead. This breaks down ownership to the point that nothing is mine or yours. Your final line hits the nail on the head. You and me are we and together we are us.
I like it.
Hope I have made some sense. (Just eaten a whole tub of ice cream)
Thank you for this
Keith
Oh yes, I forgot husbands and wives, and husbands and husbands and wives and wives...
<Deleted User> (18980)
Fri 6th Jul 2018 15:25
Of course the big 'us' is married couples, though they seem to spend most of their time bickering.
Good thing Hazel.
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Cynthia Buell Thomas
Fri 13th Jul 2018 15:51
I like the way you think. I recognised a kindred soul from poem one. ?
And, yes, congrats on POTW!