A Human Experience

“I don’t need you to understand me, I just need you to believe that I’m having a human experience.”
~ Daphne Dorman

I watched a Dave Chapelle comedy special over the weekend (The Closer) and it was brilliant. I especially loved the story he gave about Daphne Dorman. The quote above doesn’t do much for you until you see it yourself but I can tell you what I found remarkable.

Good comedy makes you laugh..hard..you might even snort..And it’s usually funniest when it’s true..when you can find humor in the irony and contradictions that we are presented with from day to day..

Chapelle gave a story about a woman he gave the opening spot to, at one of his shows. She was transgender and he relays the development of their friendship. In response to him telling her that he didn’t understand her, she said something poignant..

She said..”I don’t need you to understand me, I just need you to believe that I’m having a human experience.”
~ Daphne Dorman

For myself, I can extend that to say..for you to believe that even though my reality doesn’t look like yours, it doesn’t make it a mistake.

And this isn’t a general splash across the page because let us not kid ourselves, it is oftentimes very clear when people are genuine versus when they are on tomfoolery.. (yes?) I’m saying that to say, for people that you know are giving it to you straight..(no pun intended)..you don’t HAVE to understand them.. You don’t…but what would be gracious is if you can appreciate that THEIR existence is not invalidated by YOUR experience and existence.

We are all human…and it would be so much more human if we didn’t lift one form of humanness above other forms.

The last post in the carousel above is a message I received last year, that I return to periodically..I come back to it, always with gratitude.. I am grateful that I valued MYSELF..enough to grow and heal and embody the parts of myself that even I, had viewed before as a mistake.

‘The Inside Story’ book and the ‘Hybrid Humans’ brand are my creative ways to say..My inside story is true and valid and I am human. I am not a mistake. No-one is..

#hybridhumans #thecloser #daphnedorman #theinsidestory