I want to thank everyone who has taken the time to explore my little corner of the blogosphere! I was never sure I’d post 100 entries, but here we are! The entries with the highest number of views were about my Mom (on Mother’s Day) and Dad (on Father’s Day). I can understand that–I let my emotions out more than usual on those two days.

I’ve been thinking about what to discuss this time, and I want to talk about something near and dear to my heart–diversity. The dictionary describes “diversity” as “the state or fact of being diverse, difference, unlikeness, variety, multiformity (whatever that means), and a point of difference.”

What intrigues me about the word is that it means things that aren’t the same. And yet, when we use the word today, we seem to mean a certain type or area is valued above others.

I grew up as a Seventh-day Adventist Christian in a small town in Northeastern Pennsylvania. That means besides my family, nobody near me believed in anything close to what I did. So I spent much of my childhood, youth, and adolescence explaining what I believed in.

That actually was healthy for me. When I went to college in a Seventh-day Adventist school in the Washington, D.C., area, so many of my new friends told me how great it was that I had grown up as I had. Many of them grew up in an “Adventist ghetto,” as they liked to call it–surrounded by others who most likely believed what they did and never questioned each other about it.

This all had a serious impact on me. When people agree with me, I’m often genuinely surprised. I’m not used to that at all!

Another experience I had was the time I was driving back from a political convention in Florida to the DC area. I was seated near the front of the bus with a guy who said he was on the other side of the aisle from me regarding abortion. Okay, I would prefer that not happen–he, on the other hand, supported it.

We began to discuss our views. At first, there was a lot of heat and precious little light. But as we talked about it more and more, we came to realize that there was really only one area we disagreed on. He didn’t favor informing parents if a teen had an abortion, and I did.

I learned a lot from that. Now I enjoy talking with people I don’t agree with because I often learn things from them. I don’t always change my mind–I rarely do, in fact. But at least I learn why folks think the way they do. And that’s helpful.

What discourages me most about diversity is that only certain cultures or points of view seem to be “correct.” I don’t get that. If we want to be truly diverse, we need to include all cultures, even the wacky Scottish one in which they heave huge wooden poles and wear kilts. (I have a little Scottish in me, so I know something about that.) Why is one culture valued above another? If we are to be truly diverse, we should also be inclusive.

Then, too, when discussing politics, I find folks on both sides of the aisle declaring the other side “dangerous.” I guess that’s often why not discussion is allowed–it’s too dangerous to even speak to someone who disagrees with us or thinks differently than we do. Again, I don’t get that.

I’m used to being around people I disagree with. Hey, I’ve worked for several organizations in my life, and I’ve never once agreed with all (often most) of the decisions being made. But I’m okay with it.

One time, I was voting in Montgomery County, and included on the ballot was the name of a gentleman who was running for the Board of Education and said that he felt the schools should follow the rules that Adolf Hitler laid down because the children would learn more from that experience than they do now. I laughed so loud and long that I actually voted for him. Apparently, another 200 people felt the same way because that’s how many votes he received in a county of thousands. Made my day, anyway.

Do we all have to think alike, dress alike, listen to the same kinds of music? Thankfully, no! That’s what this is all about, being whatever we want to be.

If you come across someone you don’t agree with, don’t consider them dangerous. Consider them someone you should get to understand better. That’s how I look at it, anyway.

Here are some folks talking about diversity:

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