(This is meant to be the introduction to a series of children's stories I am writing in the hope of helping children understand and find ways to manage peer pressure early in life by valuing themselves and the differences in others. The setting is a rainbow and the characters are the rainbow's colors)
The Lesson of the Rainbow
Behold the beauty of the rainbow
Glorious in orange, purple, blue, and indigo,
Along with green, yellow, violet, and red
One dark day very long ago, Violet said,
I have been thinking for quite some time
That no other color is as glorious as mine
Your presence here is surely a curse
It would be better if colors were not diverse
Red, who was bold, but small
Answered the challenge for them all
You are glorious and you are strong
But we are stronger together than you are alone
Together we can create new colors endlessly
Without us, violet is all you can ever be
There really is no need to fight
We are the storm’s beacon of light
Violet gave these wise words some thought
Decided this was a battle best left UN-fought
So now the rainbow is our sign
That differences don’t separate, they bind
This lesson in childlike simplicity
illustrates a lessons of ancient history
We can insist on segregation
Exist alone, limited by isolation,
We can fight each other to prove our superiority,
Or we can respect the many gifts of diversity
Johnson
03/01
Read more articles by Brenda Johnson or search for articles on the same topic or others.
