What can we do?

Updated: 3 Dec 2009

Can we care about others as we care about ourselves? Can we embrace and celebrate our differences? Can we discover common ground with our neighbors from different cultures? Can we look respectfully at what we each bring to the party of differences? Are we up for the necessary Dialogue?

These are the essences of relationships.

Individually and collectively, can we each and all:

• reach out to others,
• improve mutual understanding across neighborhoods, precincts, nations & the world,
• learn about our neighbors' culture as they learn about ours,
• trade anecdotes, interpretations, experiences, and photos,
• learn the other's language,
• make friends from around the globe, and above all
• celebrate our differences?

In terms of relationships, could they be:

• person to person,
• neighbor to neighbor,
• school to school,
• town to town,
• church to church,
• business to business,
• city to city,
• nation to nation, and
• amalgams of these?

When the road is rocky, can we approach our differences in a spirit of cooperation via dialogue and empathy? If we can do this as individuals, then can we not as groups embrace still other groups and so on to the national and international scales?

Carla McClaren understands this perfectly. A New-Age somebody, struggling to understand, McClaren has her feet firmly astride the cultural gap separating "her New-Age heritage" from the skeptical one. As a refugee from New-Age thinking, she knows first hand how difficult it is to frame discourse in non-threatening terms in order to be heard. She deeply understands why well-meaning and beautiful people in each culture cannot, or do not, communicate effectively across the divide. We will have to wait until May 2010 to hear it from Carla. Meanwhile, she can be reached on Twitter.

"Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful, committed citizens can change the world. Indeed, it is the only thing that ever has." - Margaret Mead

Accomplishing all this will permit solutions to fall into place.


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