This viral story blew my mind — a young Sikh woman with facial hair who was mocked on the social news-bookmarking site Reddit saw the post and personally responded to the mockery in the most compassionate, enlightened way possible. Not only did she educate the douchebag (to use his own handle) who posted her photo on what it means to be a bold, self-assured and proud Sikh woman who embraces the sacredness of the body (Sikhs are bound not to cut their hair or alter their body), she provided an insight worthy of elderhood:
When I die, no one is going to remember what I looked like, heck, my kids will forget my voice, and slowly, all physical memory will fade away. However, my impact and legacy will remain: and, by not focusing on the physical beauty, I have time to cultivate those inner virtues and hopefully, focus my life on creating change and progress for this world in any way I can. So, to me, my face isn’t important but the smile and the happiness that lie behind the face are. 🙂
To be aware of and embrace such an intrinsic truth as a young adult is inspiring.
Read Balpreet Kaur’s full response here. The story gets even better — Balpreet’s warm and dignified comment actually shamed the original poster into apologizing:
I know that this post ISN’T a funny post but I felt the need to apologize to the Sikhs, Balpreet, and anyone else I offended when I posted that picture. Put simply it was stupid. Making fun of people is funny to some but incredibly degrading to the people you’re making fun of. It was an incredibly rude, judgmental, and ignorant thing to post.
…
So reddit I’m sorry for being an asshole and for giving you negative publicity.
Balpreet, I’m sorry for being a closed minded individual. You are a much better person than I am
Sikhs, I’m sorry for insulting your culture and way of life.
Balpreet’s faith in what she believes is astounding.
I am an aging 200 student at the Erickson School of Aging, and I am very impressed by the reaction from this Sikh woman. Something that is not easy for humans is to accept who they instead of trying to fit in the society norms. She really stood for herself and her beliefs. I am actually dealing with insecurities in my life too. Being a non native english speaker from the Congo in Africa, I have a different style and accent than americans. Sometimes, I feel embarrassed to talk in public or attending certain events but I am starting to realize that there are more than physical appearance in life. The most important is to be happy. This is wisdom. In this class, we have learned that older people tend to be wiser than younger people due to their experiences in life and this is a great example of it. The reaction of Balpreet shows how wisdom is earned with experience and age in life. This is a life lesson for the younger man and in the future he will act better.
I am an AGNG 200 student at the Erickson School of Aging, and I am really astonished by what I have just read; I am very happy to know that people are standing up for themselves and their belief no matter how harsh the society judges them. I am actually someone dealing with hirsutism, and I have found myself to be very insecure of it; I have been obsessed of getting rid of it, but now that I have read of Balpreet’s brave of actions, I realize that there is more in life to focus on than external looks. In my aging class we are learning lesson that could be parallel to this situation. A lesson about the fact that older adults tend to have greater wisdom compared to younger individuals due to the fact that they have lived longer and been through a myriads of life situations. Balpreet’s reaction have shown that younger people can change the process of aging by challenging themselves everyday to use wisdom in the interactions that they with others; at the moment that they are older they would acquire greater rate of wisdom than those of older adults on our era.