We Are All In The Gutter
The Irish poet and dramatist Oscar Wilde said, “We are all in the gutter, but some of us are looking at the stars.” When I read those words, it says to me that we’re all starving beggars on the way to the banquet table and that perhaps we should come as we are, to people as they are.” What do you see in that quote?
When I read that, I get conflicting images – I think “looking at the stars” gives hope when you’re in the gutter. But I also think that I can forget that I’m currently living in the gutter with other “gutter people” and I can judge other people for looking like and smelling like and acting like gutter people. When I stop looking at those around me because it’s more fun to look at the stars, I am in essence killing those people around me, dismissing them to irrelevance. Someone feeling irrelevant will probably never look up at the stars I’m so preoccupied with.