This may be as close as I ever get to being a wildlife photographer. I have a mulberry tree right outside the door of my office. We also have an abundance of these little guys in my neighborhood, and I got lucky enough to catch this one visiting my mulberry tree one day.
Some people may view squirrels as annoying rodents, but I find them fascinating. This little one is a fox squirrel, but there are dozens of types of squirrels, varying in color and size. Even among fox squirrels, the color variations are striking. In the Appalachians, you might find fox squirrels that are patterned in dark brown or black, with white bands on the face and tail. Where I live, most fox squirrels look like this one, though I have spotted pure black ones here and there. The variations are numerous.
This is just one type of squirrel. Fox squirrels are classified as tree squirrels, but there are also ground squirrels (which include prairie dogs and chipmunks), and flying squirrels. And they come in all shapes and sizes, from teeny-tiny to the size of a small dog.
With all this diversity in squirrels, I'm reminded of a scene from Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves, in which a little girl approaches Azeem, played by Morgan Freeman, and asks if God painted him. When he tells her yes, she asks why. He answers, "Because Allah loves wondrous variety."
Life would be boring without variety. If we all looked, sounded, and acted the same, it would take all the beauty out of the world. Art would be bland. Music would be monotonous. Architecture would be uninteresting. There would be no reason to take pictures, no reason to write stories. Our lives would be endless amounts of gray, figuratively speaking.
No matter how a squirrel looks on the outside, it's still a squirrel. No matter how a human looks on the outside, they're still a human. Diversity in color, gender, ability, and even creed is a good thing. When we embrace our differences, nothing is taken away, only enhanced. We sharpen each other. We make each other better.
So if you're feeling down about being different, don't. Embrace what makes you different, for your story makes me better.
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