What shall we do?

[Guest guest]

Hi there I'll start by introducing myself:

My name is , and I'm in Nova Scotia, Canada. I am not an LP. I have none

that are friends of mine and have only met LP in passing. I've wanted to have a

LP who is a penpal, not so I can say 'Hey, guess what--I have a penpal who's a

/dwarf/, y'wanna see?!' but because from a dwarf, one on one, I can get a more

personal glimpse at what it is to be a dwarf in a world being built for AP. And

because I love to have friends, regardless of height. Unfrtunately there's just

no safe way to ask for this, because people will almost always assume the worst.

When I see little people, I DO look. And I have no doubt that to them they see a

AP staring, but I don't MEAN for it to be. Of course I'm curious; nowadays I

know why they're little, but it still facinates me. I always want to know more,

I want to know what problems they face because society is built for the majority

(Which is AP) and how they deal with those challenges; but then, it's not just

little people i want to know that about. I love hearing from ANYONE who conquers

their challenges what they are and how they overcome them.

But how SHOULD we respond when we see an LP? Would it be rude of me to ask if

you need help reaching something if I think you do? would it be construed as

rude or presumptuous? Or would it be rude to NOT offer help? If I asked you to

sit with me, do you assume it's because I want to oogle, or because I want to be

your friend? And if we do sit down to chat, what's okay to say and what isn't?

How can I make you comfortable interacting with me? How can I make -myself-

comfortable interacting with you in the process? We can't just ignore one

anothers' existance: little people do look different from what I'm used to

seeing. Similarly to how if I were to go to an all-black-skinned community

they're going to look at me, or a black-skinned person comes to an all-white

community people are going to look at them, people not accustomed to seeing

little people are going to look--and I'm sure if I showed up at an

all-little-people event, someone's going to notice that I'm not a little people.

The least we can hope for is to become comfortable with each other, the most we

can hope for is to become friends, and by then our differences will make us

closer, rather than uncomfortable.

I'm sure there will be lots of different feelings as to what you'd like for us

to say, do, behave--what it would take for us to be friends or even coexist, and

I'd love to hear them.