A few weeks ago, as several members of my family and I were walking along a dirt road to start our tubing adventure at an exquisitely beautiful springs called Ichetucknee, a group came walking up behind us making all sorts of noise. We decided to get away from them as quickly as possible.
We jumped in our tubes but to our dismay the rowdy group kept gaining on us. About that time my grandson decided to climb up and jump out of a tree, tossing the expensive goggles he had borrowed from my daughter, assuming they would float. As the goggles sank he panicked and yelled for help, as he began to search to retrieve them.
Then Craig, a member of the “Loud Bunch,” joined the search and found the goggles almost immediately. My grandson swam over and said he had learned two things that morning. First, never to assume goggles float, and second, that Craig was awesome.
How many of us have hurried to move away from “them,” that group or individual who is so different from us and our tribe? Here’s the thing, when I get past the differences and listen deeply, we almost always have much in common. Our commonalities–include caring for our families, wanting to succeed at what we do, fearing things we don’t know well–are very similar. I don’t get into politics here, but I’ll tell you this, when I’m teaching and I end up talking with someone I find funny, smart, interesting and wise, I’m almost always shocked to discover they’re a member of the opposite party. And I’m guessing I’ll continue getting surprised again and again at how nice people can be when I stop sizing them up and putting them in a category… just like Craig.
I challenge you this week to look for a group or a person you might normally avoid, such as wrong political party, wrong religion, wrong dress, too noisy, too quiet, etc., and then look for something unique about this person or group. It’s exhausting to stay angry and righteous, and it saps our creativity and joy. It’s a no-brainer which is the smarter approach to making this day, week and year as amazing as possible.
