![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
sevOnce upon a time, there was a little school. This school was a place of learning, play, and love for many little people. Even though the little people were there for only a few hours a week, the little school loved them and wished to keep them happy and safe.
This is a fable, though it has more basis in fact than I'd like. As a fable, however, it is traditional to have a protagonist. Therefore, we meet a little girl -- let's call her Rachel -- who came to this school. Rachel is an imaginary little girl, because this is a fable. But being imaginary does not make her any less important. Later in the story, we'll talk a little about Rachel's friend Fred, but that comes later, after they've become friends.
Upon entering the school, Rachel was given a book of rules about things. It has come to our attention, the rulebook said, that it is not uncommon for people to be made ill by certain things. In this fable, let's call one of these things Blue Toys, though in other fables it might be picking flowers or eating nuts or cutting one's hair or keeping small animals as pets. The rulebook went on to explain: because some little people are made ill by Blue Toys, and some of those little people who are made ill by Blue Toys attend our school, we do not want any Blue Toys in our school.
We know, the rulebook went on to say, that some children can play with Blue Toys with no difficulty. We request that those children play with their Blue Toys while not at the little school. We find that there is vast variety and delight available in toys that are not Blue, and in the life of a little person, the toys one plays with at the little school are only a subset of the entirety of toys a little person plays with. Even if you play with Blue Toys for six hours a day, you can have a few little hours of school in which you play with toys that are not Blue.
In fact, the rulebook continued, we have found that these restrictions have made us all more thoughtful and creative about the toys we play with, which has been a general improvement in the little school, as well as in all the little people who attend the school.
Another little school might have not restricted Blue Toys in the first place, requiring some little people to restrict their own toy-use. And other little schools did that, but this little school felt that its values of tolerance and respect required more than that.
Rachel read these rules and thought, even though I am not made ill by Blue Toys, I feel safe and protected by these rules, because clearly this little school cares about keeping the little people who attend it safe and healthy, even when different little people require different things to maintain their safety and health.
Because Rachel was the type of little girl who liked to name things, she named this "respect." This is a school that respects people's differences even when it's not trivial, she thought, and this made her happy. It is good, she thought, for an organization to be respectful of difference. And she met another little person named Fred, and Fred was one of those children made ill by Blue Toys, and Fred was happy and felt embraced by the little school. Soon Rachel and Fred became fast friends, as little people often do when they attend school together.
Some time later, Rachel's little body changed, as little bodies do. She discovered that she had grown into a little person who was made ill by certain things, like Fred was. Unlike Fred, however, Rachel was not made ill by Blue Toys. Rachel, instead, was made ill by Square Toys.
Upon hearing about Rachel's change, the little school updated the rules: From now on, the little school said, we will not have any Blue Toys or any Square Toys at our little school. There are many other colors in the rainbow, and there are many other lovely shapes, and there are many toys which are neither Blue nor Square. And while big people can be expected to take responsibility for the things they play with, little people are not so discerning and not so careful, so the little school felt it was important to provide protections to the little people in the school that would not necessarily be required in a school full of big people.
Another little school might not have restricted Square Toys when one of its little people developed a problem with Square Toys. And indeed, this little school seriously considered, since Rachel was only one little person, that instead they should just make sure there were plenty of non-Square toys available, and that the Square Toys were very well marked, so Rachel could keep away from them. And in the end, the little school decided that that was really too much work, and it was easier to remove all the Square Toys from the school.
One day, Fred and Rachel were playing happily at school. They overheard a Grumbler having a conversation, and while they did not mean to eavesdrop, they couldn't help but overhear the grumbling, as it was grumbled right next to where they were playing. "Oh, bother," the Grumbler said. "No Blue Toys, no Square Toys -- next thing you know, we'll all be playing with nothing but little black balls and rice cakes!" But even though the Grumbler grumbled, the Grumbler also agreed it was important that all the little people in the little school be kept healthy and safe, and participated in keeping Blue Toys and Square Toys out of the school, even though it made the Grumbler grumble.
Fred, who had learned from Rachel the joy of naming things, said that he'd call this thing "tolerance." The Grumbler was tolerating his and Rachel's differences, but not embracing or celebrating them, or really even respecting them. He and Rachel agreed that, in the absence of respect, tolerance was better than the alternative. They chose to, in turn, tolerate the Grumbler. They'd even, in the name of keeping things smooth and happy, not do any grumbling themselves, even when they felt the Grumbler was quite rude, grumbling about their differences where they could hear.
Another day, Rachel lost her jacket. It was a cool day, not so cold that she'd be miserable without the jacket, but cold enough that she would be uncomfortable without it. She'd be fine while she was at school, but eventually, like all little people, she would have to leave school, and she wanted to have her jacket when it was time to leave. So Rachel went to the Finder of Lost Things.
The Finder of Lost Things took particular joy in finding lost toys. In a little school full of little people, there were plenty of opportunities for the Finder of Lost Things to find joy in Finding lost toys. The Finder of Lost Things resented being pulled away from finding lost toys to find the little peoples' lost clothing. However, the Finder of Lost Things was a finder of things, not simply of toys, or else the Finder of Lost Things would instead be called the Finder of Lost Toys. And as the time to go home loomed, the Finder of Lost Things stopped looking for lost toys and began looking for Rachel's lost jacket.
The Finder of Lost Things was not content to just hunt, however, The Finder of Lost Things felt it was necessary to grumble, not as the Grumbler did, but with more venom and anger. "Well, I never! After all we have done for Rachel and Fred, all the terrible difficulty in avoiding Blue Toys and Square Toys, they have the nerve to ask that we look for a lost jacket!" Never mind that three other little people in the last week had lost clothing of one sort or another -- mostly shoes, but occasionally a sweater or even a jacket. Those three other little people had not been responsible for any toy-restrictions, and the Finder of Lost Things therefore felt they were beyond this complaint, having not caused any obvious difficulties or restrictions before their clothing-loss incidents.
The Finder of Lost Thing's complaint was specifically: That Rachel was already different, and was already requiring the little school to do things to tolerate her difference. And as such, she has used up all her rights to ask that anyone make any other compromises for them. And the Finder of Lost Things definitely felt that having to find lost jackets, instead of lost toys, was a compromise. Maybe finding a lost jacket for Fred, whose problem with Blue Toys was shared by quite a few other little people and therefore could be considered somewhat normal (or at least common), was reasonable. But finding a lost jacket for Rachel, whose problem with Square Toys was not shared with other little people at the school, was definitely unreasonable. The Finder of Lost Things thought that little Rachel should find a different school, one that restricted Square Toys in the first place, instead of sticking around and causing problems at this little school, which had been doing just fine until her difficulty with Square Toys developed.
But now the little school had to ask itself: are there a finite number of tokens one can use, to ask for tolerance or respect? Once a person is Different and once other people have agreed to respect or tolerate those differences, what happens when the Different person continues to need things?
At this point, Rachel was feeling too rejected to want to name things. Fred, however, felt it was important to give a name to what was happening, and he named it: "unfair." It is unfair, he said, to expect that just because someone has a Difference that they must somehow give up the right to be treated with respect and tolerance just like everybody else. Respect and tolerance are not things that are finite; there's plenty to go around.
(in case anyone wonders, Rachel is not Lila -- Lila is happy, respected, & thriving in her school. This is, as previously stated, a fable.)
This is a fable, though it has more basis in fact than I'd like. As a fable, however, it is traditional to have a protagonist. Therefore, we meet a little girl -- let's call her Rachel -- who came to this school. Rachel is an imaginary little girl, because this is a fable. But being imaginary does not make her any less important. Later in the story, we'll talk a little about Rachel's friend Fred, but that comes later, after they've become friends.
Upon entering the school, Rachel was given a book of rules about things. It has come to our attention, the rulebook said, that it is not uncommon for people to be made ill by certain things. In this fable, let's call one of these things Blue Toys, though in other fables it might be picking flowers or eating nuts or cutting one's hair or keeping small animals as pets. The rulebook went on to explain: because some little people are made ill by Blue Toys, and some of those little people who are made ill by Blue Toys attend our school, we do not want any Blue Toys in our school.
We know, the rulebook went on to say, that some children can play with Blue Toys with no difficulty. We request that those children play with their Blue Toys while not at the little school. We find that there is vast variety and delight available in toys that are not Blue, and in the life of a little person, the toys one plays with at the little school are only a subset of the entirety of toys a little person plays with. Even if you play with Blue Toys for six hours a day, you can have a few little hours of school in which you play with toys that are not Blue.
In fact, the rulebook continued, we have found that these restrictions have made us all more thoughtful and creative about the toys we play with, which has been a general improvement in the little school, as well as in all the little people who attend the school.
Another little school might have not restricted Blue Toys in the first place, requiring some little people to restrict their own toy-use. And other little schools did that, but this little school felt that its values of tolerance and respect required more than that.
Rachel read these rules and thought, even though I am not made ill by Blue Toys, I feel safe and protected by these rules, because clearly this little school cares about keeping the little people who attend it safe and healthy, even when different little people require different things to maintain their safety and health.
Because Rachel was the type of little girl who liked to name things, she named this "respect." This is a school that respects people's differences even when it's not trivial, she thought, and this made her happy. It is good, she thought, for an organization to be respectful of difference. And she met another little person named Fred, and Fred was one of those children made ill by Blue Toys, and Fred was happy and felt embraced by the little school. Soon Rachel and Fred became fast friends, as little people often do when they attend school together.
Some time later, Rachel's little body changed, as little bodies do. She discovered that she had grown into a little person who was made ill by certain things, like Fred was. Unlike Fred, however, Rachel was not made ill by Blue Toys. Rachel, instead, was made ill by Square Toys.
Upon hearing about Rachel's change, the little school updated the rules: From now on, the little school said, we will not have any Blue Toys or any Square Toys at our little school. There are many other colors in the rainbow, and there are many other lovely shapes, and there are many toys which are neither Blue nor Square. And while big people can be expected to take responsibility for the things they play with, little people are not so discerning and not so careful, so the little school felt it was important to provide protections to the little people in the school that would not necessarily be required in a school full of big people.
Another little school might not have restricted Square Toys when one of its little people developed a problem with Square Toys. And indeed, this little school seriously considered, since Rachel was only one little person, that instead they should just make sure there were plenty of non-Square toys available, and that the Square Toys were very well marked, so Rachel could keep away from them. And in the end, the little school decided that that was really too much work, and it was easier to remove all the Square Toys from the school.
One day, Fred and Rachel were playing happily at school. They overheard a Grumbler having a conversation, and while they did not mean to eavesdrop, they couldn't help but overhear the grumbling, as it was grumbled right next to where they were playing. "Oh, bother," the Grumbler said. "No Blue Toys, no Square Toys -- next thing you know, we'll all be playing with nothing but little black balls and rice cakes!" But even though the Grumbler grumbled, the Grumbler also agreed it was important that all the little people in the little school be kept healthy and safe, and participated in keeping Blue Toys and Square Toys out of the school, even though it made the Grumbler grumble.
Fred, who had learned from Rachel the joy of naming things, said that he'd call this thing "tolerance." The Grumbler was tolerating his and Rachel's differences, but not embracing or celebrating them, or really even respecting them. He and Rachel agreed that, in the absence of respect, tolerance was better than the alternative. They chose to, in turn, tolerate the Grumbler. They'd even, in the name of keeping things smooth and happy, not do any grumbling themselves, even when they felt the Grumbler was quite rude, grumbling about their differences where they could hear.
Another day, Rachel lost her jacket. It was a cool day, not so cold that she'd be miserable without the jacket, but cold enough that she would be uncomfortable without it. She'd be fine while she was at school, but eventually, like all little people, she would have to leave school, and she wanted to have her jacket when it was time to leave. So Rachel went to the Finder of Lost Things.
The Finder of Lost Things took particular joy in finding lost toys. In a little school full of little people, there were plenty of opportunities for the Finder of Lost Things to find joy in Finding lost toys. The Finder of Lost Things resented being pulled away from finding lost toys to find the little peoples' lost clothing. However, the Finder of Lost Things was a finder of things, not simply of toys, or else the Finder of Lost Things would instead be called the Finder of Lost Toys. And as the time to go home loomed, the Finder of Lost Things stopped looking for lost toys and began looking for Rachel's lost jacket.
The Finder of Lost Things was not content to just hunt, however, The Finder of Lost Things felt it was necessary to grumble, not as the Grumbler did, but with more venom and anger. "Well, I never! After all we have done for Rachel and Fred, all the terrible difficulty in avoiding Blue Toys and Square Toys, they have the nerve to ask that we look for a lost jacket!" Never mind that three other little people in the last week had lost clothing of one sort or another -- mostly shoes, but occasionally a sweater or even a jacket. Those three other little people had not been responsible for any toy-restrictions, and the Finder of Lost Things therefore felt they were beyond this complaint, having not caused any obvious difficulties or restrictions before their clothing-loss incidents.
The Finder of Lost Thing's complaint was specifically: That Rachel was already different, and was already requiring the little school to do things to tolerate her difference. And as such, she has used up all her rights to ask that anyone make any other compromises for them. And the Finder of Lost Things definitely felt that having to find lost jackets, instead of lost toys, was a compromise. Maybe finding a lost jacket for Fred, whose problem with Blue Toys was shared by quite a few other little people and therefore could be considered somewhat normal (or at least common), was reasonable. But finding a lost jacket for Rachel, whose problem with Square Toys was not shared with other little people at the school, was definitely unreasonable. The Finder of Lost Things thought that little Rachel should find a different school, one that restricted Square Toys in the first place, instead of sticking around and causing problems at this little school, which had been doing just fine until her difficulty with Square Toys developed.
But now the little school had to ask itself: are there a finite number of tokens one can use, to ask for tolerance or respect? Once a person is Different and once other people have agreed to respect or tolerate those differences, what happens when the Different person continues to need things?
At this point, Rachel was feeling too rejected to want to name things. Fred, however, felt it was important to give a name to what was happening, and he named it: "unfair." It is unfair, he said, to expect that just because someone has a Difference that they must somehow give up the right to be treated with respect and tolerance just like everybody else. Respect and tolerance are not things that are finite; there's plenty to go around.
(in case anyone wonders, Rachel is not Lila -- Lila is happy, respected, & thriving in her school. This is, as previously stated, a fable.)