How do you seek and receive information about people and cultures?  Is it in the news? Education? Do you drive to their neighborhoods and visit? When you eat their food at their restaurants or if possible, go to the countries, what is your approach like?

Last week, the blog was about the way we are hiding the history of our past so as not to make our children feel bad about the harms of our past generations.  Take the harms away and the deceptive practices that are used so that we can improve ourselves and repair the harm. What about simply learning to be curious and respectful and even honor other cultures?  By not teaching how to learn about the attributes of other cultures, several things naturally can happen.

First, we become arrogant that our culture is “the way life is” or “human nature.”  We are so accustomed to our social interaction styles that we think this is natural. Second, we become hypocritical. For example, when we go to new places, we expect them to accept us more than we are accepting of others.  We become fearful of the unknown. When people move into our neighborhoods or we go theirs, rather than being curious, we often generate a feeling of insecurity or defensiveness. Also, we become ignorant. Because we may have seen or read something, we may think that we know more than we do about another culture.  Or we may hold the assumption, whether consciously or subconsciously, that they are not worthy of learning about.

In any of the cases above, we are not taught about how to approach learning with love.  What would doing so look like?  As opposed to demonstrating arrogance, we could respect and honor the contributions of others. This will make it easier to enjoy sharing space given that we show appreciation for someone different.  We can approach learning something new with curiosity, with the idea that it may add value to our lives.  We can attempt to show up in a way that we want to be a contributing part of what already exists. By doing so, we expand our knowledge and make it easier for others to want to share.

These approaches lessen the barriers that many of us find ourselves putting up when things are different. As we open up our hearts and minds to the differences, we make room for finding more similarities that build bonds. The more we learn to care, appreciate and respect others, the greater the chances are that we all will take each other’s quality of life into consideration.  Subconsciously, we will make decisions and create space for more enjoyment and healthy environments for all.