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Today's
Meditation:
One
thing that we simply can't argue about is that our world
is rich in diversity. In humans, animals, plants,
rocks, rivers-- in virtually everything, our planet shows
off a wonderful array of differences, even in its
similarities. Human beings are more similar than
they are different as far as our physiology is concerned,
but within those similarities lie an amazing collection of
differences. We see the differences in the visible,
such as skin color, height, hair color, and the like; and
we notice the differences in patterns of thought, ways we
treat each other, types of creativity, and many more
aspects of who we are.
Unfortunately,
many people look at how other people are different and
become somehow afraid of those differences. They
don't see the unique ways that we see and do things as
advantages, but as threats. They're afraid that
their world will be changed for the worse if other
thoughts, other ideas, other races, other perspectives are
brought into their world, so they do their best to
eliminate the threat by acting as if our diversity is a
bad thing, as if there's only one way to look at the
world, and that's the best way of all-- and it happens to
be their way.
I
hope that in my life, I learn as much as I can from people
who are very different from me. Skin color, culture,
geographic location, education, social norms-- learning
about all of these things from someone who has a
completely different perspective and upbringing than I
have can help to make my life richer and deeper, and
taking advantage of the diversity in the world can help me
to grow into a person I could never be if my outlook were
limited to just what I've always known.
I like diversity. If I had one complaint about it, I
would simply say that there isn't enough of it in my life,
and I hope that as time goes on, I'll be able to expose
myself to more of it so that I can see the world with as
broad a perspective as possible.
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