Walk a Mile in (Someone Else’s) Shoes

You probably don’t know who the little boy is in this sketch. I’ll reveal it at the end of this blog.

But you can tell he’s poor. The uncombed hair, the sad look, the shirt. He faced discrimination while growing up, was ridiculed, literally lived “on the wrong side of the tracks.”

As humans, we have a tendency to be judgmental. Whether we are rich, poor, or middle class, we judge others without knowing their stories, without acknowledging that they may be walking a different path.

I was raised in the middle class, so I have no idea what it’s like to go to bed hungry or not to have a place to live. As a white woman, I have no idea what it’s like to be a member of a minority. As a college graduate, I have no idea what it’s like to lack the education to find a better job. As an American, I have no idea what it’s like to live in a country that is so unsafe that I would walk miles and miles just to get me and my family to a safer place.

There is no doubt that people make their own choices in life. I can cite at least two instances I know personally of two men who overcame their backgrounds and achieved success, two within my own expanded family circle. They overcame with strong work ethics that exceeded their natural-born talents. They are success stories.

Whoa, let me back up. I just wrote that people make their own choices in life. True yet not true. Young children don’t make their choices. Illness, accidents, and other obstacles sometimes make choices for us. As a former teacher, I do know that intelligence levels cover the spectrum, and some people just don’t have the intelligence to earn a decent living in our non-manufacturing society, as harsh as that sounds. Additionally, some people find it more difficult than others to resist the temptations of alcohol and drugs.

Don’t misunderstand me. Right is right, and wrong is wrong. We don’t need to make excuses for our behavior or the behavior of others. Just because you are poor doesn’t give you the right to steal. Just because you are rich doesn’t give you the right to defraud others for even greater financial gain. No circumstance can justify illegal activities.

Yet if anyone as described above repents, tries to make things right, and changes his or her ways, I think we should accept it and let the past be the past.

What a better place this world would be if we’d help instead of condemn, be patient instead of becoming angry, and treat others the way we’d like to be treated. Try to be more understanding while still not accepting wrong. Show compassion but don’t condone.

I sketched the above picture several years ago from a photograph in a book. That poor little boy grew up to be rich, but he never forgot what it was like to be poor. He made numerous mistakes in his adult life, and I would never condone some of his behaviors. But this poem and song as performed by him express the essence of my blog today.