I said stop it

I'm tired of the word tolerate.

I'm tired of how it's used in our everyday to describe how we should relate to each other.
I tolerate you and your differences, your beliefs and your views. I tolerate your presence and your values. I tolerate how you live your life differently to me and I tolerate how you see the world through different eyes that I can never accept, only... tolerate.

See how this has built up?  A mental dam holding back our rivers of independent thought.
The men in suits use it as their byword for the modern world. We tolerate in the absence  of all else, especially acceptance. 
Acceptance is a word way out of fashion in today's world. Acceptance is something we find ourselves unable to come to terms with, we are without the capacity to deal with it in the main.  Ironically,were we to accept certain things about ourselves, we'd perhaps be in a better position when it comes to dealing with each other and our own perceptions of this reality and how we see it as individuals and groups. 

We're told that to tolerate is the way forward .We, as civilised and modern people, lay the cornerstone of the way it should be in when dealing with those who are different than us. We are benevolent and kind and have tolerance of those around us with diverse beliefs and lifestyles. 

We are tolerant.

What this has come to mean in some ways is really  just another way of saying  we'll put up with this until we can convince you to be like us or we'll end up hating each other. What is it with us ? Why do we have to impose our values  and our expectations on others just because they don't live this short life like us?


What if we're encouraged to accept things? What if we just accept that people are different and won't be like us. Situations will be difficult and challenging, life will be different than we want it to be? 

Being told that we should tolerate only increases our inability to actually move past our collective problems. It doesn't encourage communication or interaction. It makes things sound like they're an illness or disease more than anything else. Things to be put up with, struggled with and despised.

Acceptance means we have to look at ourselves as well as others. We have to be honest about our own shortcomings first.That's the uncomfortable part.  Admitting to our own faults makes us less able to point out those in the people or situations we so happily tolerate.We can't accept things and be the same as before, because when we've accepted them, they don't hold us back any more. It makes us more able to deal with lots of things and put our energies into moving up and on. It takes a lot to be accepting of things but it helps us let go of negative thoughts and feelings that keep us in the places that aren't always good for us. There are plenty of places not good for us at the moment. All of us.

Get yourself out of yours if you're in one.. 

Leave tolerance to those who want it.

Start accepting        

     

Shop until it drops..

A moment of moral crisis in a major retail outlet...

The cost of the garments in this place is reflected in the way that the majority of the people buying them seem to treat them as they let them fall to the floor or simply walk past as they lie there. They're left  for others to collect  and as a consequence of this infectious apathy , I'm less and less inclined to look at the garish summer items on display  and rather retreat into my own world of scathing disdain for those around me. I do, at one point, begin to make a point of picking things up and putting them on hangers.

I am reminded that the entire point of the day's outing is to purchase said garments for a holiday. I appreciate this, as always, but the atmosphere in this strip-lighted cattle shed is one of unpleasantness magnified and I find I'm becoming distant and defensive.

 The people in these places should have claws, if they don't already.The air is filled with the sound of their shrillness and I expect to turn and see semi evolved dinosaur types, shredding and tearing their way through the denim and tie died cotton ensembles on show. Fighting over the spoils and discarding the rags they do want.
Unconscious savagery all around me. I look for my wife, the usherette of sanity in this cruel picture house of consumerism . 
  
 As I weave through the spray tans, the gangs of piled high hairdos and the dead eyed,I catch sight of one of the cleaning staff, slowly pushing a huge broom about in a mock display of servitude. I beam him my thoughts "Throw it down and walk away. Let's see how long it is before they're up to their scaly knees in the things they've discarded". He, of course, doesn't and continues to deliver £6.29 worth of sweeping as is deserved of the situation.

Having any of theses thoughts in places such as this is a god-damned curse. Not being one for shopping at the best of times, finding myself in a here only exacerbates this and by now, I'm filled with disdain for everyone around me.
I somehow manage to reach my wife as she peruses the various styles of footwear perched on the wire racks.  I'm asked if I like a pair of glitzy sandals and my reply is as throw away as they look. My response is taken on-board, they're not made to last longer than two weeks and that's the point, not much of this is. That's why it's left lying around on the floor by the passing crowds,ignored, discarded, already forgotten.

 This entire shop is a reflection of how we, as a society, treat the things we buy, in fact, how we treat most things after a certain point. Cheaply and without pause for thought for what it actually means. Is it a bright colour? is it fashionable? will it make look like the person in the picture? Odds on, no. It'll make you look like..you but in something summery?
I can't buy anything from this place. There's too much going on under the bright sign too  ever make it a possibility. We get to the queue and I just want out.
   
Right,
Lets breathe and relax,pull back a bit and remember why we're here.

The day is a good day. Without this present incident it's full of humour and the chance to spend time with my wife. These are the pluses, always the pluses. Always be thankful for the pluses.
 I have to restrain myself at times as it's easy for me to become cynical about most things and it can be a cause of unrest. I have to remind myself about the fact that I too buy things, albeit mostly books and games. I build the defence around myself that these things are different.They're crafted and created by people who want to say something about the the world.They're filled with imagination and ask questions. The spectacle today is all about the things I avoid and really don't take pleasure in.

 Perhaps all such outlets would be better places if instead of images of pretty young things on the walls., they had pictures of the people who make them. The people who spent their days putting these fashionable items together, so that they could be left on the floor for.Our attitude may change towards  things then. A cheap attitude somehow cheapens others' lives.  
 After all,we ourselves, are as short lived as the latest styles on display and the newest trends we so happily covert.  
 Then again ,perhaps I'm wrong about it all and it's better for everyone that I stick to buying books and living in my head?