Grace Linton — Awareness Is The New Perfection!

May Anglin was excited when her best friends, Janis, Rosa, Aria, and Lois got her tickets to see Grace Linton. May adored Grace and always wanted to go and see her but was unable to get tickets.

Against her friend’s objections, May dressed comfortably in black jeans, a white t-shirt, and a pair of Sketchers leather shoes.

“You will be the only one there dressed casually,” Rosa said.

“You guys know when I am excited, I like to dress comfortably,” she defends.

They eyed her weirdly, shrugged their shoulders and Rosa suggested, “Let’s all change to match her wardrobe.”

Half an hour later they arrived at the venue.

Glancing around, May noticed others dressed like her, along with many overdressed people.

Her happiness expanded when their seat was reserved and it was the front row. Grace Linton appeared on stage, dressing comfortably in jeans and a t-shirt too. Her feet relaxed comfortably in black sandals, revealing red-painted manicured toenails.

May glared at them, then swayed her head towards Grace on stage and they nodded in annoyance.

With a smile of satisfaction, May gave Grace her attention.

“Today, our topic is Perfection,” Grace announced.

Something stirred in May and her head unconsciously swayed to her friends in time to see them staring at her, then quickly turning away in choreograph style.

“May Anglin, come on stage,” Grace called out.

Shock paralyzed May for a second, as her eyes expanded, still glaring at them whose focus was on Grace. Understanding swept through her veins touching her heart, and reality pulled her on stage.

“Welcome,” Grace greeted her, hugging her, then easing away handing her a cordless microphone.

“Your friends,” she points in the audience to Janis, Rosa, Aria, and Lois in the front row, with weird smiles on their faces. “They say they can’t get you to do anything wrong. They believe you are too Perfect. How are you able to defeat temptation?”

Smiling in revenge, May elaborates her eyes on her friends, “When Janis was twelve years old, she cheated on a test and scored 100%. When our school found out, she was suspended for a week. She lost her after-school job at Mr. Jacob’s supermarket. She was dropped from every activity our school had. My mom had to threaten her mother’s boss with a lawsuit for him not to fire her mom.”

Janis's face turned red as the color painted on Grace’s toenails, and the audience gasped in shock.

“Why would he fire her mom for something she did?” Grace asked.

“He believes that maybe she learned the dishonesty from her mom,” May explained. “Parents are often blamed for the wrong decisions of their children.”

Janis fumed and covered her face in shame.

May went on, her eyes on Rosa, “When Rosa was fourteen, her mother refused to let her attend a Jon Bon Jovi concert in the next town an hour away. She sneaked out when her mom fell asleep. That night, she met friends who took her to the concert. She was given alcohol to drink and was raped.”

The audience gasped as Rosa joined Janis in covering their face in shame.

May went on, “Benji fell in love with Aria in high school. He was kind, considerate, and patient with a heart of gold. He remembered her birthday, St. Valentine’s Day, and every holiday that meant something to her. She played on his kindness and love like a musician playing his guitar at a rock concert. He didn’t smoke, or drink and didn’t pressure her for sex either. Unlike Jason, who was the opposite, who used her and refused her. When she got pregnant and told him, he hit her and she lost his child.”

Aria, glared at her, rage turning her face blood red.

Grace blinked, several times as her eyes couldn’t expand anymore.

“Please!” Lois bolted up, “I can’t relive what you are about to reveal. I know it’s been more than ten years, but the wound hasn’t healed yet.”

May smiled, and explained, her eyes focused on them, “I am not perfect. I am aware.”

“So, awareness is the new perfection?” Grace asked staring at her in awe.

“I learned from Janis that if I cheat, my mom will pay with me and it will stay with me too. I learned from Rosa to obey my mom, stay off the streets at night, and avoid alcohol and certain friends. I knew from Aria that love sometimes doesn’t have an age and when it comes, be aware, because sometimes, it only visits once.”

The audience stared at her in awe and she slammed dunked, “I am aware that if I do what they do, the same thing will happen to me. It’s not about perfection, it’s about awareness and common sense. Because lots of humans in our world aren’t aware of the life they are living. But I am. I learned from all of you,” she gesticulates her hand in the air. “That aids in me making the right decisions, and I, am being called perfect just because of that!”

Silence speaks to hearts, souls, and minds as a new and different understanding of life and living, is exposed to more than five hundred humans.

May ended with, “Imagine a world where all of us are aware of the cruelty, hate, thoughtlessness, greed, destruction, and injustice we are creating in the lives of others. If you know that your actions would harm you or someone, would you still do it?”

You could hear a whisper and hearts stopped for a few seconds. Then the entire audience cheered her as Grace reached over to hug her tears stealing down. Her four friends rushed on stage joining in a group hug, as they wept, begging for forgiveness.

I am May, it hurts to be called or be thought of as being perfect. I am not perfect. Humans are the most imperfect beings. I learn from the lives of everyone I know. I am simply aware. Aware, that if I make their mistakes, I will also pay their price!

If your heart could speak, what would it say?

Life taught me, that from the aware or the unaware actions, choices, and decisions of humanity, our world can be at peace or be at war.

Thank you for reading this piece. I hope you enjoy it.