I’ve been mentally wrestling with a chicken or egg type question: Are we more the same than different or more different than we are the same?

There will never be a correct answer but it is fun to explore the query. (Isn’t “query” a great word?)

Seems to me that most of our differences are conditioned and cosmetic and our similarities are deeply hard wired.

I encounter people who are misinformed, yet passionate, about a topic. I have differences with them. They will argue for their limitations with a set of limited, flimsy “facts” and are blind to anything that factually discounts their version of reality. I am also the same as them because I am capable of doing the same thing – getting on a soapbox without anything to sell.

There is a life force that animates me and, as best as I can tell, it also animates every other living creature. At a base level, that makes us the same. Where we become different is when we argue that my life force is better than your life force. That’s like arguing that your bleach is better. Bleach, no matter the brand, has the exact same chemical makeup. They may put a different color in the mix or add a different smell to it (cosmetics), but, at base level, it’s still the same.

It’s really the angle of view that will have us consider ourselves more different or more the same.

I think both our sameness and differences need to be recognized before we can begin to play better with others. When differences become the spice of life rather than the meal, that’s when we know we have embraced our sameness.

Differences are the tip of the iceberg. The bulk of that huge mass is unseen sameness. When we recognize the percentages, we may not dismiss someone so quickly whose tip is not perceived as majestic as ours.

Same or different? If you keep the accent on different, there won’t be enough bleach on earth to remove the stain of superiority.

All the best,

John