"He's Not Heavy, He's My Brother"

Unfortunately, sometimes, it does not matter "what you do," but often instead, "who you are" that matters. This probably sounds cynical, right? Yes, I suppose it is. It's a reflection of how shallow our society can be. Gorgeous blonde in the Mercedes convertible rear-end you? "Oops, it was probably my fault, since I was lost and had to stop suddenly." Puerto Rican teenager in the souped-up Camaro rear-end you? "Damn, how did he get a driver's license in this country?"

For example, all those studies that show that "attractive" and "tall" people are more successful, climb the corporate ladder quicker, etc., et al. Well, duh. But could we be any more shallow? It's truly disheartening to contemplate how much our physical appearance may affect our destiny.

And, besides offering our physical appearance to be judged, we also get judged by "who we are." That is, our class (and family background), race, ethnicity, religion (or lack thereof), gender, sexual orientation, etc., et al. Are we doomed to be judged, stereotyped, and cast aside by the sheer superficiality of all these characteristics? How can we let the true "content of our character" shine through? Well, it is a cliche, but I've found the most effective strategy is to just "be yourself." And just keep on being yourself. This is often harder than it sounds; it requires us to completely surrender to the idea that we cannot control what people think or how they may react to us. We can only control how we act.

Think about the genuine earnestness of the phrase "he's not heavy, he's my brother." Heck, he may weigh 200 pounds, but he's actually light as a feather, right? This phrase so often reminds me of Bill Clinton, in terms of a person who will always be "too heavy." Here's a guy so reviled by the established Washington elites that he could do no right. Even when he did EXACTLY what the Republican Right would've done (for example, scale back an entitlement program like AFDC), he was still reviled. But, if George H.W. Bush had done the same, he would've been made a hero by the Right. Bill Clinton will always be "heavy" to many people on the Right. Alas, it doesn't matter what was done, it mattered who did it.