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A
long pause. A very long pause.
"Where do the Mermaids stand?" says I.
"Yes.
You see, I am a Mermaid."
"There
are no such thing as Mermaids."
"Oh,
yes, I am one!"
She
did not relate to being a Giant, a Wizard, or a
Dwarf. She knew her category.
Mermaid. And was not about to leave the game
and go over and stand against the wall where a loser
would stand. She intended to participate,
wherever Mermaids fit into the scheme of
things. Without giving up dignity or
identity. She took it for granted that there
was a place for Mermaids and that I would know just
where.
Well,
where DO the Mermaids stand? All the
"Mermaids"--all those who are different,
who do not fit the norm and who do not accept the
available boxes and pigeonholes?
Answer
that question and you can build a school, a nation,
or a world on it.
What
was my answer at the moment? Every once in a
while I say the right thing. "The Mermaid
stands right here by the King of the Sea!" says
I. (Yes, right here by the King's Fool, I
thought to myself.)
So
we stood there hand in hand, reviewing the troops of
Wizards and Giants and Dwarfs as they roiled by in
wild disarray.
It
is not true, by the way, that Mermaids do not
exist. I know at least one personally. I
have held her hand.
©
Robert L. Fulghum
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