Are People Similar, or Different?
One of the most profound things that was ever said to me in college came from a Dr. Jim Lyle. He was a theatre and directing professor who was one of the best teachers I ever had. I remember asking him whether he thought that people across the world and from different cultures, religions and such, had more things in common, or more differences.
He thought for a moment, and said:
“I think that all people have a place in them where words fail, and this is what we all have in common.”
He said that to me nearly twenty years ago now, but I will never forget. Any time I start to think that I don’t understand others, or that I have nothing in common with (fill in any “group” I don’t belong to here) … I remember what Dr. Lyle said, and I feel more “at home.”
Wherever Dr. Lyle is now, I thank him for the many contributions that he made to who I am today. The above quote was merely one of them – yet it was one of the most important ones.
How do you think about people that may seem “alien” or completely different to you?
Ms. Sanity
Well, I think some people are REALLY different, and it can be really hard to feel like I have anything in common with them. but maybe that’s just me…
Tipsy Dazy
In a chapter from a delightful story read by the author, that is becoming one of my favorite audios to listen to, the story goes that a little girl is left alone in a large room full of lamps of all shapes, sizes and various configurations and told to pick her favorite.
After much searching and considering old and new, shiny and dingy, made of this and made of that, she finds not one but two very different lamps that are her favorites.
The lesson that she learns from the keeper of the lamps is that when she tries to tell the difference between the lights that illumine the lamps, she cannot. The light that illumines each lamp is the same. Here she learns to realize and look for the light that illumines each of us and that it is the same light.
The book is “The Beejum Book” by Alice O Howell and I assure you that Beejum’s of all ages will return to it again and again where ever new and fresh adventures will unfold along the journey.
I also like Jim Lyle’s words on sameness in that space where words fail.