Tardy by Linda Stowe
When I was a kid in school, how often we were absent or tardy was part of our grade. I was rarely absent because I liked school, and I was never tardy because I rode a bus. School buses may be rickety, and the drivers may be crabby, but if there’s one good thing to be said about them it’s that they ran on time.
But, even if I had the option, I wouldn’t be tardy because kids always find a way to tease those who come in late. And being the shortest kid in class, I already had a target on my back.
As I think about it, even with all their innocence, children learn guile at an early age. As soon as they tread onto the playground, kids soon learn how to carry themselves to avoid being bullied or made fun of. In the classroom we may be learning the multiplication tables and singing about the wheels on the bus, but out on the playground it’s dog-eat-dog.
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Another great observation by Linda Stowe. And it is true. We start this pattern of “making fun” of others and “bullying” others at a pretty early age. Yet, when we entered this Earth, we were not that way. The moment we were born, our true selves came here without hatred, or scorn, or negative thoughts. We only sought love and care.
But others began teaching us those negatives. It seems it gets handed down from one generation to the next. The bitterness, the doubt, the anger, the prejudice, all move in, thanks to those who are around us. We learn without trying. Some of us more than others.
Our saving grace is realization.
For many of us, we recognize that this has happened, and we work all throughout our lives to reverse the process. Oftentimes, the older we get, the more accepting we become.
But it depends on the person.
For other people, that pendulum swings in the opposite direction. The bias and the intolerance get larger and more powerful with age.
It all depends on our consciousness and our spirit.
And so we all go.
Tardy by Linda Stowe
