Respecting Differences

“Strength lies in differences, not in similarities.” Stephen Covey

Every human being is different. We all look different, think differently and have different beliefs. Often, what you believe or what is important to you may have been taught to you from your elders or your peers, or you may have learned them from the environment you have grown up in. To respect other people for who they are and what they believe may help us to foster a more tolerant and caring community. It may create a more supporting and caring environment.

Some personal benefits of respecting the differences of others may be that we learn more about other cultures, and this could even help to create friendships with others who you may not have expected to. It might help us to be more empathetic or grateful.

I have travelled to many parts of the world and the best part of all the experiences has been all the people that I’ve met and the different cultures I have experienced. I’ve eaten in some amazing places and also had some terrible experiences in restaurants. Once, Sandi and I met a Vietnamese-American in Dalat, who invited us out. He kindly took us to a restaurant that had some local Vietnamese specialties. When the food arrived, to our surprise, each dish was filled with a different piece of offal, the most confronting was an eyeball soup, with eyes rolling in the light broth, looking at us, waiting to be eaten. That was a different meal, but I don’t remember respecting it very much. However, I did enjoy that experience and have strong memories from it.

Respecting others’ differences can lead us to many varied and sometimes rewarding life experiences.

Select your favourite idea from the following list to try together with your family. Change or adapt your choice to suit your needs.

• Listen to music from a different culture. What was different compared to the music that you usually listen to?
• Go to a religious event or ceremony and discuss what you noticed.
• Find three facts about the indigenous people of your area and talk about what you discovered.
• As a family, cook some food from a different culture that you haven’t cooked before.
• How are you different to others in your family? At school? Work? In your sports team? Discuss.
• Go out to dinner to a restaurant from a culture that you have not experienced before.
• Make a list together of all the rude and mean names you can call someone who is different to you. Which names do you think are terrible? Are there any that are not so bad? Talk about how those people might feel if you called them some of those names.
• Watch a foreign film or television show together.
• Meet with someone from a different culture and ask them about the country they came from.
• Make a list of things you like and things that you don’t like. Compare your list to other family members. What is different? Is there anything the same?

My family and I live in a beautiful seaside village in southern Victoria. Many people have made the ‘sea change’ and moved to this town from Melbourne in search of a different life to the ones they previously had in the city. It is a fairly monocultural town that you would expect to see on a postcard. On our first trip to Central Australia when the kids were young, we were wandering around Alice Springs when our son, Finn, saw an Indigenous Australian and asked, “Where is he from?” Years earlier, I remember standing in a queue at the airport in Bangkok when I heard a very strong New Zealand accent from behind me. I turned around and to my surprise, there was a young man of Asian origin standing there. I was expecting what I thought was a typical New Zealander – someone of European background. In my mind, I didn’t even picture a Maori. Having made eye contact, I smiled at him and continued to wait in the line.

“I look to a day when people will not be judged by the colour of their skin, but by the content of their character.” Martin Luther King, Jr.