Celebrate Difference
by Michael Feeley
WE SEE DIFFERENCE all the time – noticing how people and things are different and like us. The way they look, act, speak, live, age, gender, culture, work they do.
What unites all the difference?
> We are all human beings
> We all live on the same planet
> We all have needs, dreams, beliefs, fears, commitments, loves, pain, happiness+++
How can we work to understand and even become the difference we see?
Seeing difference, without preconceived ideas or contempt, makes a difference.
Our ability (choice) to recognize how we are like what is different from us – related to – connected with – the same in any way helps all of us value difference and not treat it with fear or rage.
Studying difference, writing about it, helps me explain, with accuracy and depth, what it means to be a woman or man, Catholic or Jewish, a black or Asian person, gay or straight, Canadian, Dutch, a human being.
Change is not easy work but it is essential to me as I ask – What does another human being deserve?
Writer, feminist, and civil rights activist Audre Lorde express what I’m working at in such a clear and loving way:
“It is not our differences that divide us. It is our inability to recognize and celebrate those differences.”
Thanks – Michael
Please send this post out to celebrate and honor difference throughout the world.
I think you’ll like this too – Describe Not Discriminate.
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