I think the key to fighting ignorance is exposure, knowledge, and an open mind. It does not take a whole lot of effort to do some research and read about the women’s lifestyles that are depicted in the image above. I just think it’s the weirdest thing when people automatically associate the woman on the left with something bad, while simultaneously associating the person on the right with something good based on their garbs. I’m not going to sit here and preach, and I’ll leave it up to you to agree or disagree with either woman’s particular lifestyle. I would just hope that you were not raised to reflexively have a negative association to either woman. And if you were, I hope that you take the necessary steps in educating yourself about their societal values before you pass anymore judgment.
Now that I’ve got that off of my chest. Can I just say that today, at first glance, some people really look crazy when they have ashes smeared across their forehead in the shape of a cross. My initial reaction was “a Charles Manson cult?” I do not know where I’ve been the past twenty Ash Wednesdays of my life, but today was really my first time being around a mass quantity of people performing this ritual. It only took me a few seconds to recoup and realize that there is nothing wrong with what any of these people are doing. Right now it stills feels a little abnormal because I am not used to seeing such a thing. But I know that with some more exposure to this tradition, that I won’t even give it a second thought anymore.
