I'm a Geek, always have been, likely always will be, from a time before it was allowed, even encouraged to be a Geek, from the time when we'd be attacked for enjoying the things we did, for no more reason than they weren't what everyone else did.
Recently I've been thinking, not just about how things were, but about how things are going to be going forwards. There are still the same people out there who will hate on you for what you love, who will seek to ridicule, berate, and hurt you for nothing more than who you are, for nothing more than what you are, and the only difference between thirty, forty years ago is that they don't get to be as obvious about it as they used to, because Geeks have recognised that there's a lot more of us than there are of them.
Them...
The Haters...
The Worlds full of hate, because it's easier to hate than it is to put aside the anger of yesterday, especially when that anger , to see past the narrow view that was once all we had to see through, and recognise that we're all hurting. Some of us mentally, some of us physically, and that the way forwards is to help each other, not try to offload our fear and pain to someone else by hurling it at them.
This is not the way...
It's my birthday today, and I'm looking back at the world I lived in so many years ago, and now at the world we have, and I'm happy to have been a part of making this world that we have now, but it hasn't been easy. It's a long way from my D&D books getting shredded at school and the teacher looking down and saying "That's make believe Dodd, you should do something useful with your life..."
So I did...
The Teachers name was Fagin, the Irony was lost on me at the time...
Most of all, I remember that I thought at the time that we'd never have a world where we could be accepted, where talking about Dragons at work wouldn't be met with sneers and threats of violence because it wasn't regaling the world with stories of how to sink ten pints and get laid at the weekend.
I see it now, as the world changes for the better, there's still those who sneer and belittle, but now it's because they see that their time is over, and they're getting in the hate while they can. There'll come a time when hate will not be borne without penalty, where every act of wanton mayhem caused for no better reason than someone wanted to make someone else feel bad, so that they could feel better, will not be overlooked, and we will not sit in the corner, hoping that it's not us next.
Even as I write this, I wonder if someone will feel upset by my words today, if someone will come after me for saying them, if I shouldn't say anything, just sit back and hope that no one comes for me, but that would be a betrayal of all that I've stood for these years, and I do not stand alone.
I did not see years ago just how right the G'Morkh was, but I took the message to heart, I've had things banned from public view because people who were born to more power than I have ever had wanted my voice silenced, but it didn't silence me, it made me go look for them. Those who remember when this was all but a dream stand together now, not hoping for a better world, but making one every day. If you strike us down, we become more powerful than you could possibly imagine...
Thirty years from now, I hope to look back at this and see around me the world that I never dared dream for, and if I don't, it'll be my son looking around, continuing the fight...
With his Fathers Lightsaber...
Of course, knowing my son, it might have changed colour by then...
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