Sharing Cultures

“Wisdom is directly proportional to the size of the group whose well-being it takes into account.” Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi, The Evolving Self One of the great things about teaching at a school that draws students from all over the world is that I’ve had the opportunity to have close relationships with people with very different backgrounds. Since art is understood through similarities in our emotional core, I feel connected to what they do and the different wells of imagery stimulate a wider perspective. Gregory Bateson defined information as “the difference that makes a difference”. When something new actually changes the way we view the world, it enlarges the scope of our understanding. The world is full of untapped sources of knowledge from which to build a bigger picture of reality. Every human being is a library of unique experiences that form a particular window on the world. No one view can see it all. Each individual outlook has something to teach us. When someone else’s background is radically different from our own, we can learn more than we might from someone similar to ourselves. Yesterday a wonderful young Chinese student came to visit and brought me a Christmas present. She said it was the first time she’d wrapped a Christmas gift. I gave her some of my homemade Christmas cookies, one of my bookmarks and her choice of ornaments to hang on my tree. Her contribution enriched my pleasure in the tree and I’ll think of her when I hang the bell in the future. We have novelty to offer each other and novelty stimulates dopamine, so it’s clearly good for our well-being. Every culture teaches me about being human. What kinds of things are celebrated and how, where the true principles are beneath the modern surface manifestation. This is where the disillusionment blossoms and people can miss the wisdom found at the source. The polarization being pushed by destructive elements in society denies the value of what thinks differently. To create an atmosphere that includes all points of view rather than setting them in opposition, invites knowledge. Put aside the competition to have the right idea and we can have a whole landscape of ideas to choose from to match a particular problem or situation. Insight into a range of ways to consider an issue offers more opportunities to think creatively. With a larger intellectual range established, everyone is set free to speculate more widely and more interesting constructions and hybrids can occur. The greater the range of ideas from which to draw the better the final synthesis will be.