One of These Things

One of these things is not like the other.

I once read some interesting thoughts on how men and women are much more alike than different. Dr. Henry Cloud broke it down to the most basic of human traits and characteristics. Forget testosterone levels and muscle mass and pre-frontal cortex jazz. How are we more alike than different? According to his research we are very much more alike.

Oh, my love for Sesame Street runs deep. Along with the alphabet and numbers and happy songs, they taught both parents and children to look at the DIFFERENCES in everyday objects. Not harmful but helpful in developing critical thinking skills and the ability to be analytical, but, this fun segment of the tv show also shaped our thinking and narrowed our focus in terms of how a thing was different.

There’s definitely a fine balance here. Differences are vitally important. We will always need to determine the difference between good and evil and between a poisonous mushroom and an edible one and so on. At the same time, when it comes to people, we need to open our hearts and minds to the similarities of others as well. Sometimes we’ll see that “many” of of these things are QUITE LIKE the other. One beating heart, two listening ears, two observant sets of eyes. Both love carrots . . .