The Golden Rule From "Am I Blue"

I read the story "Am I Blue" by Bruce Coville.  The story follows the protagonist named Vince and his confusion with his sexuality.  After being physically bullied by a kid named Butch Carrigan, a man named Melvin, who claims to be his “fairy godfather”, visits Vince.  Melvin takes Vince to get coffee and discuss the issues Vince is having with bullying and his sexual orientation.  Melvin tells Vince about how "Gay bashing is a special issue" for him.  Melvin was killed in a homophobic attack in his afterlife; Melvin works as a fairy godfather for other children dealing with finding out who they are sexually, although Vince is his first case.  Melvin gives Vince three wishes.  The first wish is for his coffee to be Swiss double mocha, without actually saying it out loud. Vince's next wish is for everyone who is gay to turn blue so that people who are homophobic will realize that there are gays all around them and that they didn't do them any harm.  His final wish was for Butch Carrigan, the homophobe who harasses Vince to turn blue so that Butch would understand what Vince is going through, however Melvin returns saying that Butch was already "blue as a summer sky" when Melvin found him.  Vince, still insure of his sexuality is now more comfortable with who he is, understanding that everyone in his community knows who is gay now and who isn't.

Melvin, the fairy godfather, is a good example of a theme in the story of being the bigger man and also the "golden rule" of treating others the way that you would like to be treated.  In the story, Melvin is killed during a homophobic attack, or gay bashing.  In the afterlife, instead of seeking revenge from his murderers, Melvin becomes a fairy godfather to help other children dealing with sexual confusion, as well as educating the public so that everyone is aware of this issue and that no one with have to suffer what he suffered, much like the way many former drug addicts open drug rehabilitation centers to help others dealing with drug addiction.  Melvin is a good example of being the bigger man by not trying to make sure that his murderers suffer, but to make sure that an incident like this wouldn't happen again.  He isn't trying to find and harass the people that killed him and make sure they pay for what they did because that's not the way that he would want to be treated, although what they did was wrong.

This is a good theme to live by because situations like this one, although not necessarily about someone's sexuality, do exist.  When you apply this theme to the real world it reflects to you as a person are more mature and are trying to fix what's going wrong in the scenario.  For example once when I was in a basketball game, there was a kid on the other team who would shout, "Brick!" or clap when anyone on our team was shooting to distract them and make them miss. However, we didn't go right back and shout whenever he shot to show that we wouldn't distract him even though he was trying to distract us.  It reflected to others that we had some decency and sportsmanship and eventually he stopped.  Applying this message can fix whatever is going wrong in the situation you're in; in addition it is a good way to carry yourself as a person because it reflects positive traits about you.