I once read a quote glued to the wall of a bathroom: “We could learn a lot from Crayons; some are sharp, some are pretty, some are broken, some are dull, while others are bright, and some have weird names, but they all have learned to live together in the same box.” (Robert Fulghum). I still think about this quote all the time. What if we learned to understand each other’s situations and learned to live with them rather than criticize? Maybe everyone would benefit. Then, we would all fit into the box, or as we call it, the world.
Recently, I read another quote about Crayons: “Sometimes you need to see people as a Crayon. They may not be your favorite color, but you need them to complete the picture.” Not all Crayons create the same picture and not all people live the same life. So why make someone feel bad for living a life different than your own when they were born to do so?
So back to the question: Why is it so easy to make someone’s life so hard? It’s easy to see differences between people, but if you try a little bit harder, you will also see similarities. Sadly, we are so eager to point out someone’s differences. It’s easier to see a yellow Crayon is different from a green crayon. But what we fail to realize is that green is part yellow too? Green is yellow and blue mixed together. Both are Crayons. We often see people the same way.
People judge other people based off their appearance and how they stand out from them (like calling someone by their race, sexuality, or religion). But regardless of race, everyone is a human, just like the rest of us. Pinpointing their differences to make them feel less of a human is why it’s so easy to make someone’s life so hard.
Thankfully making someone’s life easy is much easier than making someone’s life hard. A simple compliment can make someone’s day, opposed to an insult that can ruin someone’s day.
Encourage people to create their own picture because if everyone drew the same picture with the same Crayons, what would be the beauty in that?