You can't hide being crippled "inside"

Being a hit single kind of guy, there are only few pop albums outside the Beatles catalogue that I like to listen to from front-to-back. One of them happens to be by an ex-Beatle, John Lennon. Here are the lyrics from one of the songs from the album Imagine, the bluesy “Crippled Inside”:

You can shine your shoes and wear a suit

You can comb your hair and look quite cute

You can hide your face behind a smile

One thing you can't hide

Is when you're crippled inside

You can wear a mask and paint your face

You can call yourself the human race

You can wear a collar and a tie

One thing you can't hide

Is when you're crippled inside

Well now you know that your

Cat has nine lives

Nine lives to itself

But you only got one

And a dog's life ain't fun

Mamma take a look outside

You can go to church and sing a hymn

You can judge me by the color of my skin

You can live a lie until you die

One thing you can’t hide

Is when you’re crippled inside…

Lennon was always the most political and socially-astute Beatle, but you don’t need to be a fan to know the truth of his words; you can find this out in the most mundane of circumstances every day. The other day I went to the McLendon Hardware story in Kent. I walked up to the entrance and the electron sliding door would not open. At first I thought I was at the wrong door, and went to the other side, but this was clearly designated as the exit. So I went back to the other door; I was obviously mistaken because I observed the door open automatically for another person. I walked to the entrance and stood in front of it for several moments, and the door still would not open. Perplexed, I had to take hold of the both sides of the glass doors and manually separate them so I could enter. Why wouldn't the doors open for me? Was someone controlling the doors to prevent “certain people” from entering? Like people who might appear to be Hispanic? It wasn't like these people "knew" me; I only go to this store twice a year to buy steel-toed rain boots.

I picked-up a pair of these boots, and as I walked to the check-out counter, I waited to see what would happen as another person approached the entrance; unlike for me, it opened without the man even breaking his stride. I went to the check-out line that faced the entrance; the white female clerk seemed to me to be rude and unresponsive, avoiding even looking at me. I suspected that she had pressed a concealed button that prevented the door from opening. I mentioned my experience with the door, and noted that on other occasions that I had shopped here I experienced odd behavior by the employees, suggesting a discriminatory attitude toward me. The clerk said nothing, but appeared to be put-out by my even being there. I can only assume that this kind of behavior is "recommended" in the corporate manual.

You can find people who are "crippled inside" every day. They may appear to be "perfect" on the outside in the way society defines it, or live what they believe to be impeccable lives. But their faces betray a nature crippled by conceit, arrogance, narcissism, bigotry and prejudice.