About diversity..

Picture source: Pinterest

Couple months ago, a few of us went for a meet-up event to paint Tulips. As we began painting, our cultural differences and accents added an interesting spark to the conversations all evening. The event concluded with a session of art appreciation. The paintings looked colorful, beautiful and surprisingly unique.
 

All of us were painting Tulips and yet each Tulip looked different from the other, even the ones that shared space on the same canvas.  They were different in texture, color, size and shape and, it is these differences that made each of our painting unique.  Our perceptions of the Tulips were different, and when we admired each other’s painting somewhere unbeknownst to us we had acknowledged and enjoyed an evening amidst diversity.

Picture source: Suncreek United Methodist church

Few days later, while jotting down notes in my Spanish class, I noticed this artwork pinned to the wall .The artist's perception of the letter's ‘J’ and ‘S’ not only piqued my interest, but also reminded me that - language can only be a medium to communicate; it cannot be the reason to communicate.

The thought resurfaced early May, when my grandmother’s new care attendant started helping her. The attendant spoke Russian and English sans grammar. “You walk lunch eat?” My grandmother would respond in Hinglish. “finished khana” In spite of their differences and lack of common language, they communicated and got to know about each other’s lives.  They shared jokes, family pictures and learnt about each other’s cultures; together they created a language that is only spoken by one heart to another.

Diversity is around us, in us and among us. Each time we collaborate with our colleagues at work or catch up with our friends; when we participate in cultural festivals, engage in conversations or have dinner with families we are embracing diversity in some way.  Our differences define us and make us unique, even identical twins have their unique quirks that makes them different from each other.  In any situation, judging someone may seem easier but our strength lies in accepting and respecting our differences. So, concluding this post with a quote by Bill Clinton, “We all do better when we work together. Our differences do matter, but our common humanity matters more. “