“Together Is Better”
A flock of eight ducks flies over the open ocean, the wind carressing their feathers. Each duck is a different color. The colors are pink, light pink, yellow, green, light blue, blue, purple, and white – a rainbow of sorts. One day, the ducks land on an island for a break from flying, and they’ve never been on this island before, so they decide to explore.
The eight ducks find some other ducks grouped up by color in groups of three. The ducks in groups are three purple, three green, three blue, three yellow, one white, and one white pink. The eight ducks approach the groups of ducks curiously. The white duck tells the new ducks to join their color, but the new ducks refuse, which makes the white duck upset, so the white duck scoffs and turns away.
After a while, more ducks show up on the island. Three are purple, three are yellow, and three are blue. The new ducks looks around and realize that they must pick a side; the rainbow of unity, or the cliques of separation. The yellow and blue choose the rainbow while the purple choose the cliques.
As time goes on, more ducks show up – two green, two white, one yellow, and one light blue. The green and white join the rainbow, and the yellow and light blue join the cliques, but are kicked out shortly after for thinking differently and being different, so they, too, join the rainbow.
Soon after, four purple ducks and three pink ducks show up. The purple ducks join the rainbow and the pink ducks split up. One pink duck joins the rainbow, one joins the cliques, and one does not choose, he just watches as ducks from the cliques flee to the rainbow due to the white duck of the cliques’ outrage.
“This is madness! All of it! Ducks are supposed to group by color, gender, age and whatever other catagories there are, not be one big mess of a group!” The hateful white duck hollers as the yellow ducks, the light blue ducks, and the green ducks of the cliques flee to the rainbow. The hateful white duck makes the purple, blue, and pink duck cliques stay with her. Even the light pink duck, who stayed by the hateful white ducks side for a long time, flees to the rainbow after that.
Everyone turns their attention to the lone pink duck who has yet to choose a side. The pink duck realizes that he stands alone, so before he makes his choice, he gives all the ducks a speech, “What has happened to us? Why are we judging each other? Why does it matter what color our feathers are or how we think? Why does it matter what our religion is or who we’re attracted to? We’re all just ducks, aren’t we? Why does it matter if some ducks feel they were born the wrong gender? Why does it matter if some ducks can’t fly or quack? We are all ducks. That should be all that matters. We should just treat each other equally and with respect regardless of labels. It’s so simple. Our feathers don’t matter, our love interests don’t matter, our genders don’t matter, our religion doesn’t matter, our disabilities don’t matter. None of it matters! We are ducks living as ourselves, simple as that.”
After that, the pink duck silently walks over to the rainbow, and with a satisfied sigh of relief, joins it, and all the other ducks except the hateful white duck follow. The hateful white duck sees the rainbow, sees all the happy ducks being themselves, being kind, and sighs, and after a few days alone, she joins the rainbow, and now he is happier than he’s ever been before.
Let this be a lesson to us all that humans are humans, and that labels are meaningless and only cause harm. Let everyone be themselves and be yourself, and everyone will be happy. Love is love no matter what. Simple as that.
~The End~
