How do I perceive
myself?
Lois Salemme
NCLC 345
A brief self-profile…
• Short and stocky
• Slanted eyes of yellow
race
• Old and shriveled
• From: South Korea
• Current Loc.: America
• Dream: To achieve
global citizenship
I am struggling between
2 concepts of me.
Absolute Value vs. Relative
Value
Look, beautiful flowers!
They are beautiful.
Isn’t this one cute too?
Ah, perfect beauties!
How can I see myself as
beautiful as they are??
I have to insist that I can’t stop
loving myself.
I respect the absolute value in me.
And I hope someone tweets
me that I am lovable and
beautiful.
Where am I standing?
Does a rainbow coalition help
me feel any better?
Is positive diversity uplifting?
Is the idea of One World a
comfort to me?
I have seen people
struggling to balance their
mental and emotional well-
being each day.
I imagine fixing the world is
not a piece of a cake.
What has been tried and
true?
Diversity ridiculed
Diversity strained
Strike one,
Strike two,
Strike
three….
You are out.
Or are you??
I meditate to myself that I am
as beautiful and functional as
anyone else is.
My small inner voice says to
me, “I can’t stop loving you.”
And it asks of me, “What has
not been tried and true?
I am ejecting myself into space
to free myself
and to see a
better view of
the world in
which I belong.
My life line is that I am loved
and connected and not
ridiculed on this Earth.
Fin