From: kdc5072@ultb.isc.rit.edu (K.D. Colagio)
Subject: A few weeks ago...
Followup-To: soc.bi
Originator: kdc5072@ultb
Organization: Rochester Institute of Technology
Date: Thu, 5 Nov 1992 18:07:28 GMT

Elf made a post relating an analogy having to do with glasses.  The use for
that story was defensive...

I have taken the idea, and made it not defensive or aggresive, but still 
valid.

I have it hanging on my door, and now I will "hang" it on the net...hope ya
like it...

*hugs* to all

    -=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=
    =   Kevin Colagio...student at large - Bear code?  You think I   -
    -                aka                 -   know what that is???    =
    =       KDC5072@ultb.isc.rit.edu     -    B2/4 w g++ K s- h+ r   -
    -=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=

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                                   GLASSES 


        The day that I was born, glasses were placed on me.  This was nothing
    different from any other person, and therefore considered "normal".

        As I went through my childhood, everything that I saw was corrected 
    by my glasses, which made others with the same type of glasses seem
    unattractive, while those of a different style glasses were attractive.

        As time goes on, and anyone can tell you, glasses will not remain
    whole.  At one point, my glasses chipped.

        Shortly thereafter, the chip became a crack, and for the first time, 
    I saw others without the aid of my glasses.

        It took a while for me to discover, but I did realize that when I
    looked through the glasses, things appeared differently that when I looked
    through the crack.

        One of the things that was most apparent was this.  To me, those 
    with the same type of glasses were not as unattractive as they were when 
    I looked through my glasses.  In other words, I liked the way that some 
    of them looked.

        But I also noticed that those with different glasses were not all as
    attractive as I had been lead to believe.  I did not like the way that 
    some of them looked.

        But what amazed me the most is that I was attracted to some of those
    with the same type of glasses, and some of those with different types of
    glasses.

        Now all this was noticed because of a crack in my lenses that I was
    looking through.  If I looked through the uncracked part of the lens, 
    what I saw returned to the way that I had been brought up to believe 
    that they are.  Those with the same glasses were unattractive, those 
    with different glasses were attractive.

        One day, not long before I reached adulthood, I got up the nerve to
    look at myself without my glasses.  To the best of my knowledge, this 
    had never been done, but I did it.

        When I looked in the mirror, I saw a person.  A person that I could
    easily like, and come to love.  But now, I wondered, could I live with
    knowing who I was, but no one else knowing?

        I decided to try an find others who, like me, had removed their
    glasses, and I found them.

        I met with them, and some wore their glasses, and some didn't, but 
   they all accepted me as I was without requiring me to remove mine.  

        As I became comfortable with these people, I began to look through 
   my cracked lens at them, and I liked what I saw.

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        Of course the day came when I removed my glasses in front of other
    people, and was overjoyed when no one turned in disgust.  

        I could now see everyone for who they were, and not feel different 
    than them.  I took to doing this more and more and soon I did it in public.

        Some of the initial response was outrage.  "How dare you remove your
    glasses", they yelled.  "If you don't put them back on, you are not
    normal.", others commented.

        But a few looked up to me for daring the system, and winning.  And 
    some of them even joined me.

        I kept my glasses off.  I refuse to be fit into something that I am 
    not, and to see things as they are not.  I see life as life comes at me, 
    and I see the passing of things as they pass me by.  But most of all, I 
    see things for the way that they are to me, not as they appear to be to
    everyone.

        Do you still wear your glasses?

        Are you willing to take them off?






















"Glasses" is copyright (c) 1992 by Kevin Colagio










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