 "Photo: MCT Campus")
With all the diversity in the world, it’s hard to imagine that someone like me has anything in common with people who live in entirely different cultures, such as tribes in Africa or Australia. Religion, customs, marriage trends, and food are some of the many things that are vastly contrary to what most of us know as a normal life in the United States. Currently in an anthropology class for my liberal arts core, I personally have been learning about a variety of different cultures around the globe. I’ve come to discover that no matter how absurd something may seem to us, acceptable actions and behaviors are determined by the circumstances and lifestyles of people groups.
Though the list of differences between these cultures could go on and on, we all do, in fact, have something in common. What could that be? As one of my elementary school teachers told me so many years ago, “we all smile in the same language.”
To grasp the significance of this statement, it’s necessary to take a step back and think about the concept of a smile. Done even from the time we were born, as found on the website www.everymondaymatters.com, we usually don’t give smiling a second thought. Most often, it is associated with happiness, though the sources of our happiness vary depending on the person. Yet isn’t it crazy to think that of all that’s different among people, this universal signal is never mistaken? If you think about it, whenever someone else smiles, you know that in some way, they have found contentment or pleasure in something they’ve experienced. And because it’s something that other people can see, it can be a powerful thing.
I think it’s important to understand the reality that despite such harsh disagreements and opposite perspectives that exist between people, we as humans really are alike. We have wants and needs for which we seek fulfillment, as well as desires to achieve our goals. And when we achieve them, what do we do? We smile.
So within this school year, rather than being consumed with your surroundings, seek to appreciate and respect diversity that exists. And if you’re questioning what you have in common with people in another country, or even with people who live right next door, give them a smile. It won’t hurt to start there, and you just might remind them that commonality among different people isn’t such a long shot after all.
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