In 1998, Cross Keys Publishing released a song written by Steve Seskin and Allen Shamblin and performed by Mark Wills, which was a part of the 1998 Album, Wish You Were Here. In 1999, the song was covered by Peter, Paul, and Mary. The title of the song was Don’t Laugh at Me.

We’ve all been in situations, some that started way back when we were kids, where we suffered some kind of verbal or physical harassment, bullying, if you will, which seems to stick with us, even if only hanging in the back of our minds. Sometimes though, memories of those times pop back up, making us remember the pains of being treated lesser than we may feel we should have been treated.

Often times, words to live by come from interactions with other people, hopefully our parents, maybe teachers, coaches, counselors, clergy, friends, even strangers. They also may come from things that we have read, maybe quoted from a famous, or even not so famous person, or seen/heard in a television program, or on the silver screen, or many times in the lyrics of a simple song, with innocent lyrics that just remind us of the Golden Rule most of us were taught when we were at a very early age.

Sometimes, we’ve picked on someone else, as an attempt to be funny, or cool, while we were in front of a crowd and were looking for acceptance from said crowd, or wanting inclusion in a popular group, most times never even thinking how it was making the victims of the barbs, insults, cruel acts, pranks, or jokes feel. We don’t think as much about how it feels when someone did it to us, as we felt a celebrity when doing it to someone else.

As I just turned the pages of a new decade in age, beginning the eighth one in my life, and I reflect on my past, I remember situations when I was I was on both sides, and at my age now, I realize that I was wrong for doing it to others and wish I could take all those times back. It’s too bad we learn and regret some things at a much later age than when we did then, but there is always time to try and make sure those things we may have done to others that were hurtful, may never be done to others, by others, again. How we can do that is by passing on something that we may have seen, read, or heard that might make others think of the people on the receiving end of the cruel remarks or treatment.

All this being said, and not being able to offer a much better way to say it, the VFTB offers the lyrics of Mark Wills, Don’t Laugh at Me.

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“I’m a little boy with glasses

The one they call the geek

A little girl who never smiles

‘Cause I’ve got braces on my teeth

And I know how it feels

To cry myself to sleep

I’m that kid on every playground

Who’s always chosen last

A single teenage mother

Tryin’ to overcome my past

You don’t have to be my friend

Is it too much to ask?

Don’t laugh at me, don’t call me names

Don’t get your pleasure from my pain

‘Cause in God’s eyes we’re all the same

Someday we’ll all have perfect wings

Don’t laugh at me

I’m the cripple on the corner

You pass me on the street

And I wouldn’t be out here beggin’

If I had enough to eat

And don’t think I don’t notice

That our eyes never meet

I lost my wife and little boy

When someone crossed that yellow line

The day we laid ’em in the ground

Is the day I lost my mind

Right now I’m down to holdin’

This little cardboard sign

So don’t laugh at me, don’t call me names

Don’t get your pleasure from my pain

‘Cause in God’s eyes we’re all the same

Someday we’ll all have perfect wings

Don’t laugh at me

‘Cause I’m fat, I’m thin, I’m short, I’m tall

I’m deaf, I’m blind, hey, aren’t we all?

Don’t laugh at me, don’t call me names

Don’t get your pleasure from my pain

‘Cause in God’s eyes we’re all the same

Someday we’ll all have perfect wings

Don’t laugh at me.”

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Always remember, “Do unto others as you would have others do unto you.”