Six Degrees

I am better than you. We are better than you. They are better than you. You are better than me.

What made you say that? Why did you say that? How can you say that?

Our senses are fixed only on what we perceive. Black and white. Short and tall. Fat and thin. Male and female. The list goes on and on and on. The question remains: are we really all that different from each other?

We have emotions to share and reciprocate. Love, Hope and Faith are universal. We blush on the sight of our crush. Our heart breaks when we end bonds. We wake up each morning rejuvenated and enthusiastic to start anew. Deep down, we believe there is a higher being looking out for us.

It is only demeanor and expression that defines distinctions amongst us. How do we communicate passion? How do we unravel challenges? How do we feed our soul?

We belong to a certain race and family, but these should not be the reason to impose boundaries, to define who is weak and strong. The only difference amongst us is how we live and perceive life, the choices we make, and how we exercise our freedom.

I pass on the question to you. What makes you better? What makes you different?

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Zer Cabatuan and Louie Marcelo work for an IT communications company in Manila. Zer, born in Davao City, likes to shoot scenes of urban and rural life in his spare time. Louie has recently rediscovered writing as an outlet. This piece is part of their joint web project, The Hump.

Dagmay would like to encourage more collaborative projects between visual artists and writers – photography, paintings, sketches married to short essays and poems to form one complete work. Please submit your works to our website, http://dagmay.com.