This little Blast from my Past was originally posted in March 2014.  I think it is still relevant.

I went to university but I never studied aeronautics or mechanical engineering. I don’t understand how a metal cylinder that weighs a thousand tons can fly. But I trust that it will when I buy my ticket. I didn’t go to medical school so I don’t understand the mechanics of the human body. Regardless, I appreciate this soft, spongy envelope that I inhabit. I never studied neurology or psychology so I don’t understand how my brain works. But mine seems to be working just fine. I can appreciate that we are all different even when we all have the same squishy innards. I like that about me, and you.

I don’t understand how some people can hate other people they have never met. I hate beets. I’ve tasted them and I don’t like the flavour. That is a reason to hate something. I’m sure people all over the world love beets; I’m not one of them. When I was a child I hated peas. I didn’t have to taste them to realize they were awful. I hated them because of their name: peas. Why on earth would you name something, that I now know to be delicious, after a bodily function that we don’t like to do in public? What I once believed to be awful, I now know to be awfully good.

Some people hate others simply because of their name or some other label that is ultimately meaningless. How can you hate something or someone you don’t know? Hatred is an emotion that must be taught. It can be taught through actions or through indoctrination or worst of all through words. For the first time in my life I have accepted the fact that there are those who want to kill me simply because I am alive.

This will sound very strange and perhaps self-serving but I don’t hate them back. I wonder at how awful a person’s life must be that their only recourse is to hate. My death will not make their life any better and I don’t think they realize that. My parents never taught me to hate but they did teach me the value of each and every one of us on this planet. I do not believe those people that choose to hate know that. Maybe one day they will.