This post week is about appreciating diversity.
Years ago, I traveled to Nice, France with my husband who had business meetings in that region.
Soon after we arrived at our hotel, I realized that I had become quite ill. We were advised to go to the local hospital so I could receive good care. Upon arriving at what I saw was an old hospital, with a very crowded waiting area, I was able to talk to the nurse and explain my symptoms. She told to go into the basement where a doctor was seeing people who were not in need of immediate emergency care, but needed a doctor in any case.
Since my French is so poor, the admissions woman actually left the main desk and took us downstairs and alerted the doctor. She didn’t take my name, or have me fill out a form, or even ask to see my passport. She just helped me get what I needed.
We were lead to a waiting room where we waited for quite awhile to see the doctor. I immediately noticed the diversity of the people around me and as we began to talk with them, it was obvious that we were all very different. But, what I found most interesting was our similarities. Whether it was the street guy who had gotten punched in the eye, the Lebanese construction worker who had shoulder problems, the African mother who ‘s children were most polite, or the crazy Algerian who complained every few minutes about the wait and commented that “someone could die in here, and no one would notice,” we were all just human and in need of care. With all of our obvious differences, we were far more alike than you would have thought. Here I was in a room full of people I could barely talk to, and yet we were all speaking a common language of suffering and concern. It made me wonder if that isn’t usually the case. We think we are so different from each other until we are put in a similar situation and then our differences don’t seem so great.
We live in a time right now where the differences in people are seen as a threat and a bad thing. But, what I’ve realized is that even if our skin color is different or we speak another language or we do very different work, we are very much alike in our humanity. When people suffer together they are there for each other. We recognize the desire in a stranger to want to help us.
I often find it so heart warming to strike up a conversation with someone who is different than I am. I ask and learn what is happening in their life and look for the underlying similarity with my own. Perhaps you can try doing the same. Reflect on what it feels like to see that we are not quite as different as we appear to be and at the heart of it, we are all equally human. In this, we learn to appreciate and accept each other for our differences and similarities alike.
Kathleen