Pondering a Short Story about Being Human
As you read the story, how did you envision the two characters in your imagination?
Black, white, red, yellow, brown, olive, bi-racial, mixed, albino, vitiligo, etc. …? Female or male (given their unisex names and that it sounded like they were straight cisgender) …? Teen/college age, young adult, adult, middle age, elderly, etc. …? Brunette, blonde, redheaded, gray-haired, pink-haired, long hair, short hair, dreads, ponytail, bald, bearded, etc. …? Glasses, earrings, nose ring, lip ring, tattoos, etc. …? Was Riley blind or seeing? Was either of them in a wheelchair? Did they have use of all their limbs, or even have all their limbs?
And these questions could go on and on, but whatever our answers might be, the next question will always be the same: Why? And even if we come up with a reasonable answer to Why? (maybe Jordan seemed to be a younger male because of the language used in the dialogue), the next question is still: Why? Why do we have that construct in our mind? And a final question: How many layers of asking ourselves “Why?” will it take to reach the foundation level of a particular construct (and then, is there anything worth keeping within the construct)?
So let’s keep living in the questions and knowing ourselves in a deeper way by asking, “Why? … Why do I think that way? … Why do I believe that? … Why do I see those people and think X, Y, or Z about them?” and so on. Yeah, “Why?” can be a scary question, and the answers may feel even more disturbing, especially the deeper we go, but the truth can set us free to be more fully human.