Tall Men, Short Men, and Us

I have been reading The Old Curiousity Shop. It is a pretty good book. It has gotten me to thinking. Which is one reason why I like reading such books. I was reading in chapter 19 about giants and dwarves. This chapter is in an overnight house where mostly performing type men have gathered. They were discussing aging giants and what is done with them along the lines of the business. Many folks turned out back in the day to see giants and other oddities at the travelling shows and the like. These days, maybe the bearded lady and the fat guy at the fair but even those are somewhat cliche nowadays. As a people we probably feel that we have moved on past the stage of paying to see these freaks do mundane or extraordinary things. But the story conjures up an interesting thought.

Have we really changed as a people? Maybe, it is just that giants and dwarves have been let out in the common. We all have seen them around doing the same things that we do. They are no longer oddities that we pay to see. This is just something to think on as we still may have these tendencies within ourselves. So, as we approach people that do not fit into the normal molds of our society, let us too think of this.