SnapDragon Speaks: On The Same Side.

I fondly remember the days of grammar-school playgrounds; of brown-bagged lunches; of field trips to museums, caverns, and coal mines.

I remember the sense of belonging within those classroom walls.

There was a constance amongst us kids: a comradery that strengthened with each lesson, each game, each talent show.

The questions we asked were not stupid, but welcomed.

We were family.

And as the decades pass—my hips widening, my face accumulating these beloved grooves of experience and time—I wonder where the simplicity of that idea has gone.

Because we were on the same side once.

And somewhere along the line, we chose to separate, to divide.

We see it everyday:

Religion, politics.

Income.

City versus Rural.

Mask or No Mask.

Everything is a debate; an affront; a dance of ignorance and arrogance that ultimately goes nowhere.

It’s a Members Only, VIP Society.

You’re either in or out, love.

And while each of these divisions presents a lifetime of conversation. . .

I wonder why we do this to ourselves, again and again and again.

. . .

I’m here.

And I see you.

I love you.

I am you.

And you, Dear Reader, are me.

And here we are, together.

Side by side.

. . .

SnapDragon is a writer, teacher, and sometimes-quiet observer.

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