PEOPLE ARE DIFFERENT

My mother & my husband have never quite got along, which is surprising considering that they have both triumphed over a difficult childhood. One of the most hurtful moments in my entire life was something my mother said to me just prior to my wedding. She commented that she found it difficult to talk to my (future) husband because she could not tell what he was thinking & found his face hard to read. She elaborated on this by adding that it was probably because he was Asian. It broke my heart, for I on the other hand had come to know his face so well & knew that he was a man who often wore his heart on his sleeve. A man who often justifies the wrongful actions of others by accepting that "people are different". I’m sure my mum is sorry for what she said, & I’ve tried so hard to forget it but can’t. The whole thing reminds me of Shylock’s soliloquy in Shakespeare's "The Merchant of Venice":

"Hath not a Jew eyes? Hath not a Jew hands, organs, dimensions, senses, affections, passions? Fed with the same food, hurt with the same weapons, subject to the same diseases, healed by the same means, warmed and cooled by the same winter and summer, as a Christian is? If you prick us, do we not bleed? If you tickle us, do we not laugh? If you poison us, do we not die? And if you wrong us, shall we not revenge?