There Are No Level Playing Fields...But There Can Be.

 

Hi!

Nature paints a speckled sky as the sun loses its neverending battle with the moon. 

The same brush floods colour to the fields of canola, peas, and all kinds of things that will have a heavy hand in feeding the world, as long as nature doesn't decide to ruin the crops through drought or hail, or some other weather reaper.

These colours take hold as summer gets into its groove, as the school year ends, as plans for roadtrips and reunions, street fairs and music festivals begin to take shape. This is what summer looks like where I live.

Floating in lakes, or back yard, above ground pools, sprinting through sprinklers and perfecting your best trampoline flips. Bar-b-ques and firepits, slowpitch, beersbee, ladder golf and pickleball provide the bits for the sports highlight reels debated around that open flame. 

None of it costs much, but provides great dividends of peace. 

I completely understand the neck-deep privilege that  I stand in that allows me this peace. I get it.

If I had been born ina different time, in a different part of the world with different features, a different orientation, or gender identity, my life would very likely look be a lot less peaceful.

Does that mean my life has been easy? Of course not, it just means that it hasn't been made harder because of the colour of my skin, who I love, or because I feel I don't fit in the body I was given. 

It just means I was, and am, not held back by societal hurdles that others need to clear to get to where I started. 

There are no level playing fields. Never has been. 

But that does not mean we can't get there. 

True equality is something that strikes fear only into the minds of those unaffected by bias. 

I can't tell you how many times I've heard the term "too equal." That somehow, those who wish to be treated equally are somehow asking for too much. What does that even mean?

Why can't every person carry the same freedom awarded to straight white males?

The same bodily autonomy. The same pay. The same opportunities, given just as readily. The same freedom from dress codes. The same definitions in behavior, a 'strong leader' need not be labelled as 'bossy' simply because of gender. The same rights to wed, to be parents, to live without a constant need to be on guard. 

Most violent crimes are committed by straight males. That's just a fact of our global society. Yet, they continue to be the ones who make most of the rules. So anything they fear, they can outlaw. So anyone they fear, they can oppress. So, anything they find threatening, they can destroy. So, anything they want, they take. 

Now, before I inevitably start receiving all kinds of ugliness from this group of individuals, please understand that I KNOW it's not ALL straight males. Good straight men exist! I happen to be married to one. He had a solid hand in raising our four strong, independent, kind, creative, smart, feminist daughters to be just that. 

Nature paints with a colourful and diversified brush. No two trees are the same, no two blades of grass. Nature is unpredictable and full of things we don't understand, but we don't destroy or try to eliminate things we don't understand. We do what we can for species in trouble of extinction, for forests, for rivers, oceans and lakes. We rescue dogs, deer caught in fences, kittens stuck in trees. 

Doesn't every single human on the planet deserve at least that same level of respect? Stop trying to eliminate swaths of humanity.  It's barbaric, it's wrong, and history has taught us, and I'm appealing to your greed here, it doesn't even work. 

There are no level playing fields. But, there can be.

You don't even have to help, just stop hindering the progress the rest of us want to make. 

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May you paint with every colour, embracing every shade.

May "equality" be removed from the swear jar, becoming a plan made.

May we finally get to the point where diversity becomes understood as a unilateral advantage.

May those who find it threatening, simply get over themselves, and get on the correct page.

May we all come to comprehend that "they" are not out to take what you consider yours.

May we finally see that we are all made of blood, bone, and emotion, human, the same, of course.

May we realize that we are but a blip in the universe, so how we treat each other, really is all that matters.

May we realize that how we treat each other is the difference between humanity lifted and humanity shattered. 

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