Like finger prints, we are all alike and different. Some of us suffer in our unlikeness, others thrive, others still don't dwell on them unless our dissimilarities stand out like a proud nail. Statistically, the average household has a fraction of a child in it. But I've never met a real live percentage of a person.
Darwin would say that how we differ is what eventually makes our species stronger. Yet, like all politics, differences are all local. We can fit in the middle of so many centers of bell-shaped curves yet at any moment these don't define who we are as individuals.
I am a late middle aged, white guy living in New York City. There are lots of us. However, I am rarely just this stereotype. The impetus to start this venture was walking by a "ghost bike" on Delancey Street, just east of The Bowery an hour ago. This memorial bike, painted white with plastic flowers and 2 candles in glass cups, one of which was still lit, had a sign and picture hanging from it. A young lady, Rasha Shamoon, age 31 was killed here by and SUV. The photo showed her with her bike smiling, alive as you and me. The sign implored a stop to the killing. I too am a dedicated cyclist. She didn't live longer than Mozart. And by the time Mozart was my age he had been dead for 24 years.
As my friend Hank might say, "we're all just ghost bikes in waiting here." Our DNA is so similar we might as well be one creature. We all want the same things from life. And yet, we focus maniacally on the tiny differences between us. Millions die and untold amounts of agita are the result. It shouldn't be so hard.
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