The Same, Only Different

I grew up in a city that was sharply and clearly divided into separate groups that tolerated and accommodated one another, interacted out of necessity, but usually avoided one another. Some of the factors at work in determining the makeup of these divisions included socioeconomic level, race, language and, not surprisingly, religion.

Where schoolchildren were concerned, it was easy to tell who belonged to what group, because uniforms were mandatory at both the Protestant and the Catholic schools. During the school year, a quick glance told you who was an ally and who was someone to steer clear of, as well as which language to use to address that young person.

Younger girls wore tunics very similar to the ones in this picture I found on the internet.



Older students wore uniforms similar to these. The colours were different at each school.




An incident from my childhood comes to mind. I was ten years old, and my friend and I went to the park on a summer afternoon to spend a few carefree hours on the swings. Uniforms had been put away for two months, and the park was full of anonymous children dressed in t-shirts and shorts.

We approached the playground apparatus and saw two girls, roughly our age, climbing the jungle gym. We paused and listened, and were pleased to hear that they spoke English. So we joined them, and although we didn't know one another, somehow we quickly discovered that we all loved Barbie dolls. For the next half hour we chatted happily about Barbie, Ken, Midge and all the details of life with fashion model dolls. We eventually got around to exchanging names, but then someone asked the inevitable question.

"What school do you go to?"

"Wellington School." That was the Protestant school two blocks away. "How about you?"

"St. Martha's." That was the English Catholic girls' school.

"Oh."

"Well, we gotta go now."

"Us too. See ya."

"See ya."

And that was that. We never saw them again. That was just the way it was back then.

The reason I mentioned this incident at all was because in some way it's similar to the distinctions that sometimes arise among us. Those of us who enjoy reading these blogs are all spanking enthusiasts of one sort or another, but it's easy to apply labels that lead to judgements and misunderstandings. DD, D/s, TPE, TTWD, S&M, BDSM, erotic spanking, disciplinary spanking, playful spanking - yes, they're all different from one another in significant ways, but the similarities are what bring us all together as a spanking community.

I hope we can all play nicely together in the same sandbox.