Two-dimensional
Is how I saw the world,
Flat people
No faces, no feelings.
Like the black-and-white
Of the films of old
No color. No gray.
No shades, no tones.
Two-dimensional.
They existed only to people my world
Like paper dolls a child cuts out
Of the Sears Christmas catalog,
The partial models caught
With one-half of a leg missing
Hidden behind another,
But still chosen
For the color of the dress,
The color of the dreams
Of that little girl--
To people my world
With a “normal” family,
A laughing mom, a jovial dad,
Two-and-a-half kids, a dog,
A happy house,
And friends over every day,
Laughing and playing and sharing
Secrets and problems and life and love,
Sharing.
I made up that world.
As I did later on
For the world around me.
I would not ask, I would not pry
But I would make up
All in my mind,
Perfect little backgrounds
And perfect little lives--
No reason ever for them to cry
Or think they were alone
Or be caught at a party,
Wishing they were alone
Or be afraid or ashamed--
They were never messy,
Their faith,
Their spouses,
Their children, their houses,
Their jobs,
Their clothing and makeup and hair--
All perfect in every way.
Lord, it’s not fair!
Two-dimensional.
It’s only when I began to pray
For them,
For people with a problem
(Only temporary, to be sure!
But a problem nonetheless,
Making them human
Temporarily descended from their pedestals)
When I prayed for them, really prayed,
And when I afterward saw them,
Asked after their problems
(Sometimes for lack of anything else to say)
Their answers showed me the truth
And I began to see them
As people
With problems and flaws as big as mine.
Color began to enter my world,
Like Dorothy entering the Land of Oz,
People became people,
Full in spirit, fully in life
Poor in spirit, living half-a-life
All with their own problems
Of various kinds,
Sometimes afraid to share
The reality of who they are,
Sometimes afraid to love.
I began to see
That none on this earth
Are truly free
Except in Christ our Lord
Who died for you and me.
That freedom makes room
For that third dimension
For the feelings and the love
For admitting that we all have
Problems in this fallen world--
Because we can’t deal with them until we admit them.
For people to be who they are
And to grow toward the roles--
Of living and loving and learning--
As God planned for them--
As God planned for me--
Being the me God meant me to be.
Three-dimensional.