"Maybe it is as simple as recognizing that life is a playground. Some
kids are jumping rope. Others are playing a game. A few are off by
themselves studying the ants. Some kids are swinging; others just
sitting and talking. Together they are all at play.
The key to working with others is recognizing that everyone has a
gift. Everyone has something to offer. Every person is valuable and
capable of making a valuable contribution to life."
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Here are a few thoughts I've picked up on that theme over the years -
Our strength comes from our differences.
It's good that we don't see things exactly the same. If you and I see things exactly the same, one of us is redundant.
Ideally people and cultures are not a melting pot where everything mixes together into a bland soup but better to be like a fruit salad where you have individual bright unique flavors which add to the whole.
In a synergistic relationship 1+1 can sometimes equal more than 2 (or as a friend of mine jokes, 1+1=2 except for extremely large values of 1). Simply put, in a collaborative relationship the whole is greater than the sum of the parts.
There is no other...no out there....no us and them. We truly are all in this together.
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It saddens me to see the political correctness or whatever the term is to describe the blanding of America - the idea that people can't display or talk about their unique cultural or individual differences.
I think of people and cultures sometimes like my favorite cookbook from Butte Montana. It's a collection of recipes from individual cultures that lived in Butte. It's great. I don't want to live in a society of white bread and bologna, actually or metaphorically.
It ranges from the goofy (and mean-spirited in a way) idea that Sponge Bob is promoting something evil, to removing the granite block with the ten commandments inscribed on it, from the courthouse lawn.
The television show Reno 911 has a funny satire on that idea. The police officers are told to remove a granite block, that has the ten commandments on it, from the lawn of a public building. They unsuccesfully try to lift it themselves, then with a helicopter and finally start hammering on it try and chip off the offending words.
I can't help but think the Taliban destroying the ancient statue of Buddha isn't really that different than the folks who would like to prevent the display of a nativity creche or label homosexuals as "evil". Diversity in nature and in humanity is wonderful, and the protection of the freedom to be different, a cornerstone of a democratic society.
Not only is diversity a source of beauty it's a key to survival. Taking a lesson from agriculture, people have to understand we won't survive as a monoculture.
A farm of identical crops or a world of identical people has limited immunity to the spread of disease. You could think of that immunity as the ability to withstand a plague of locusts (plant at least one crop those hoppers won't destroy), or some form of plant disease (it might get to your wheat but you still have the corn) or in a worldview the ability of a society to recognize early, and respond effectively, to counter the destructive effects of socialism, communism or the ultimate embodiment of hate and mono-culturalism - fascism.
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I'm going to do my best to play well today.
Hope to see you out there on the play ground.
I'll be the kid over on the edge studying the ants ;-)
Wishing you a good Friday.
