Sunday, January 22, 2017

Can't We All Look and Think Alike Please?


As someone who grew up on such a small piece of real estate I was absolutely blown away when I first discovered that the world in which I had been living for nineteen years was much more diverse than I could have ever imagined. 

For the most part we were all white, all Christian (at least nominally) and mostly all fairly conservative. It was shocking for me to learn that not everyone looked like me, shared my religious and political values, and who sported much different views of the world than I did.

Quite frankly, I was blown away. This was my first real experience with what is aptly called “culture shock.”


Even though I wasn’t aware of it back then, I had so much to learn about the world that existed on that postage stamp sized island situated off of Virginia’s coastline (pictured above). My entire world consisted mostly of a parcel of land seven miles in length and two and a half miles in width. Talk about small!

I have spent much of my entire adult life discovering that the world is so much more complex and larger than I could have ever imagined. Every single day I learn something incredibly new that helps me adapt to the swirling changes that are occurring around me at an increasingly accelerated pace.

I know, it is not easy to embrace change. But if you must have a simple answer to a complex issue try this:

Those who refuse to change become extinct.

This is the grand lesson of Mother Nature and one we had better pay attention to if we desire to make it deep into the present century.

This is why author Thomas Friedman contends that Mother Nature is the best mentor we humans have for learning how to survive in a world that is changing far faster than many of us can handle.

In his newest and most compelling book, Thank You For Being Late, Friedman rather strongly suggests that we humans would do well to learn from Mother Nature, if we expect to survive in what he calls the “age of acceleration.”

Quoting Leon C. Megginson, Friedman writes: “the civilization that is able to survive is the one that is able to adapt to the changing physical, social, political, moral, and spiritual environment in which it finds itself.”

It should be noted that Megginson made these comments back in 1963. I am not so sure that we have gotten the message to date. We simply are not adapting to rapidly changing realities in our world.

This seems to be what lies behind so much global unrest today.

Well, I have tackled a subject this morning that is far too complex and large for such a small blog post. I do hope, however, to have stirred your curiosity to read Friedman’s book.

With that said, I would like to comment on one small, but critically important lesson, I’ve learned from Mother Nature (Friedman certainly helped me see this):

Diversity is what makes us strong. 

It is what provides us with the sustenance to survive. Biologists observe that whenever diversity exists in Mother Nature life flourishes. If diversity is removed from the scene death follows rather quickly.

Of course social scientists, some thoughtful theologians, and even knowledgable politicians all know this. Diversity is not the enemy as so many believe it is. Our world is becoming more and more complex and diverse and singular easy answers won’t work.

When we resist diversity we become parochial, narrow-minded, and overly protective of our own kind (nativist). When diversity is resisted our attitudes quickly become “us against them” and this narrows the incredible possibilities available to us for continued survival.

When diversity is resisted we end up with either/or solutions to the many complex issues we all face as human beings. Quite frankly, the world is not so black and white. There are no quick fixes. There are no easy answers, although easy answers are what nativists want.

Truth is, our world (even the USA) cannot survive with this nativist mentality. Such thinking too often leads to conflicts, violence, wars, and divides us into artificial categories such as “us against them.” Such a mentality leads to death and extinction.

Such thinking creates artificially opposing groups such as conservatives and liberals or Republicans and Democrats. These artificial categories lead to either/or approaches to complex problems that cannot be solved in such a diverse world. Why do you think we have FOX News and MSNBC?

We are in this together even if we don’t all look alike, believe the same things, worship the same gods, or live on the same parcel of land.

Diversity is not the enemy folks. Diversity is what God gave to the world in oder for us to survive and flourish together—just ask Mother Nature.

Check her out!



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