Angela C. Orlando
Words: 391
[Parable]

There once was a world in which everybody was red.



All the men and women were red.



The boys and girls were red.



Even the dogs and cats were red.



But for some reason that no one ever really understood, sometimes a red mother would give birth to a blue baby.



The people of the red world did not know what to do with these blue babies. Obviously, they couldn't grow up among the red. They were much too different. So they were sent away to a special land just for blue people. There these children would live among their own kind, have their own blue language and their own blue culture.

Some red mothers just couldn't bear to part from their blue babies. The mothers loved their babies and wanted to keep them close. After all, it's not like these mothers asked to be hosts for a new race. These babies were their offspring, their blood. Why couldn't people learn to accept blue babies and pretend like they were the same as everyone else?

It just didn't work. These children were NOT like everyone else. They were blue while everyone else was red. That's a difference that can't be ignored.

So doctors invented a great new medicine that would turn blue babies into red babies. The mothers and fathers were so excited. Finally, their blue children could be normal!

This, too, was not so successful. Instead of becoming red, the medicine turned those blue babies yellow. Now these children were rejected by both the red and the blue. They weren't red enough to be accepted by the main culture and they weren't blue, so they couldn't be part of that group. There wasn't even a special land for them to find peace in a yellow world. They were different no matter where they went. They always would be. Oh, those poor yellow babies!

Why do we have to live in a world of primary colors? It must be all or nothing: red or blue. There's no in-between.

If only we could mix and blend. Then we would get the beauty of blue, the voice of red, and the strength of yellow.

Red, blue, and yellow. Orange, green, and purple. A rainbow of colors. A world of acceptance and understanding. A place where all can belong. That is my colorful dream.

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Angela C. Orlando is a deaf-blind writer based in Bay City, Michigan.