-
Different Is Good
In a presidential election year, a year when we have been bombarded with racially-charged national tragedies, the word diversity has gotten a lot of air time. It is established in our lexicon. The meaning shifts however when we set aside political agendas to consider the merits of diversity on a personal level. Diversity of thought. In this context, diversity simply means different. Existing in a state of unlikeness or of being different from something or someone can trigger all kinds of responses. Fear or curiosity. Attraction or repulsion. But before we can truly encounter and engage the nature of someone’s otherness, we are obliged to concede on one essential point…the possibility…that we don’t know everything. A…
-
Relevance
“I’m just trying to matter.” – June Carter Cash From the habits of favorite pets…to tales of audacious entitlement…to sharing existential beliefs, there is nothing like a 5-hour car ride to fuel a lively conversation. On a recent trip home from volunteering in Louisville, KY at the SkillsUSA National Leadership Conference, my travel companion and I wandered into a conversation about the underlying need that all humans have to be relevant. He started it, stating matter-of-factly, “Of course, everyone has a need to be relevant.” As though it was the most basic of common knowledge. And while I agreed with the premise that we all want to be relevant, I had not though of it in…
