Neighborhood gold mine

About two months ago, I was messing with some landscaping in our front yard when I noticed that a pretty young lady, apparently out for a walk, had paused a short distance away.  She was obviously very reserved, but an irrepressible curiosity peeked through her demeanor even as she pulled her scarf more tightly around her head.

So I joined her in the street, and we began to talk.  On a couple of occasions following that day, I visited her and her husband at their house here in Centerpointe.  They belong to a particular Asian Muslim culture of which I had no prior knowledge. 

What struck me about our lively chats is the degree to which they naturally gravitated toward discussions of the principles that we hold in common:  A belief in the importance of education.  Hard work.  Bootstrapping.  Devotion to children.  The American Dream.  A moral commitment to honesty.  Rejection of a debt lifestyle. 

In stark contrast to that experience, very often when I get together with American friends, the chats gravitate toward discussions of beliefs that we DON'T hold in common.  Why is that??  Could it have something to do with the constant fractious screaming of politicians and news media?  Everything we hear about is presented as a "war on", a "fight for", or a "crisis of".  We are in a cultural phase right now where many Americans cherrypick their own custom-made but incredibly-narrow mindsets and then form de facto alliances with whatever gas-bag talk-show hosts promote those same precise subscriptions.  And then of course the result is nothing more than an ideological stalemate as each side digs in its heels and leers (and jeers) at the other. 

Meanwhile during this witless, divisive process, people seem to forget about everything that originally made America great:  Hard work.  Bootstrapping.  Devotion to children.  The American Dream.  A moral commitment to honesty.  Rejection of a debt lifestyle.

***

Vignette in a similar vein:  about two weeks ago, I visited a Muslim client of mine whose fierce intelligence is outstripped only by his startling frankness.  He left the office to attend a business luncheon while I stayed behind with his staff to work on the regulatory filings that he hires me to assist with each year. 

Upon his return, he seemed mildly agitated.  "That guy," he began, and I could tell by his body language that he was referring to a white American with whom he'd had lunch.  "That guy asked me what is the deal with the Taliban."

"And what did you tell him?" I asked.

"I told him the same thing I tell everyone who wants to know.  I told him that the Taliban is our equivalent of the Ku Klux Klan."

***

Get to know your neighbors and associates on an appropriate personal level - all of them, including the ones who may appear less approachable. 

Don't do it because I suggested it, or because some public authority figure proclaimed that it's the "right" thing to do and you figure it's your day to take a bath in political correctness. 

Do it because it might be the most interesting experience you have all week.  We have a wealth of diversity here in Centerpointe, as I'm sure many of you also have in your places of business.  What derives from that diversity is reality, genuine reality with all of its insight and unpredictability. It's not the pre-packaged rhetoric you see on TV, the stuff that was auto-generated and spun to maximize both viewer alarmism and network advertizing profits. 

It is simply interesting to get to know new people, especially when they live close to you, and I bet nobody around here will leer at you as you do it.