Xeno

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My 8-year-old son and my 12-year-old daughter have asked questions such as, Daddy, why is it that most of the blue states are in the right and the left of the country, and most of the red ones are in the middle?

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And don’t worry, this is not an episode about politics, I promise.

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But the way that I found myself answering their question made me think of one of the most important aspects of human existence, tribalism.

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Whether we want to or not, humanity’s evolution on this planet has been characterized by tribes.

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For millennia, the tribes formed indigenously.

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Survival instinct grouped us to become stronger as a small community than as individuals.

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Social engineering, belief systems, ideologies, political convictions, races, so many factors have grouped us into tribes or have been used by those in power to group us into tribes.

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After all, it’s easier to control and manage a society in small groupings than it is as one mass.

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What this dynamic drives us towards is the sad truth of echo chambers.

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We hear the same message, see the same faces, receive the same explanations over and over and over again until in our minds, which seek order, consistency, and pattern, the echo becomes the truth with a capital T.

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Even social media and internet communications, which you would imagine would be a window into the world outside of our own, is rigged via algorithms and data collection to keep us confined to the same palette of humor, news, and information that’s already our norm.

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Are you conservative or liberal?

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Are you gay or straight?

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Rich or poor?

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A believer or non-believer?

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Pick your boxes so we know what truth to present you.

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There’s no room for difference.

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Other is alien.

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Other is strange.

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It’s Zeno.

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We don’t like Zeno.

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Zeno is a Greek prefix that more or less means foreign, alien, unknown.

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And everything from politics to science fiction trains us to reject things that are Zeno as a threat to our normal.

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The deeper you are inside of a landmass as large as the United States, the less diversity you’ll find.

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It’s no coincidence that port cities tend to be the melting pots of racist ethnicities, beliefs, cuisines, customs, holidays, and overall diversity.

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It’s at the port where exchange happens.

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Far more than just exchange of goods, but exchange of ideas and thoughts and customs.

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It’s very difficult to grow up in these areas and not have an embracing point of view on diversity.

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But, not all of us live in port cities or cities that attract diverse crowds.

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For many of us, beating the xenophobia has to be a matter of choice.

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That night, I encouraged my kids to never stop seeking out the different.

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Whether through friendships, through travel, reading, learning, and sure, even through delicious foreign food.

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As human beings, we’re part of a massive tribe.

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we miss out on feeling ourselves as part of that worldwide tribe.

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And that’s a sad way to live.

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I’d even venture to say that it’s an incomplete way to live.

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So try this when you can.

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Take a trip.

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If not a literal, physical trip, take one in your mind.

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Break the convention of what you read, and sneak in a book that will transport you somewhere else in the world that you know nothing of.

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Watch a documentary about a place or culture that’s utterly foreign to you.

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Delight your taste buds in a cuisine that you’ve never tasted before.

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Make a new friend that comes from a background different from yours.

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Listen to music from a different part of the world in a different language even.

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Expose your five senses to the different.

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Break the convention of seeing the same, hearing the same, feeling the same, tasting the same, smelling the same.

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You have no idea what doors can open in your thinking, your tastes, your goals.

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You belong to a beautiful, diverse, infinitely varied worldwide family.

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Don’t lose out on the privilege of feeling, truly feeling, a part of the human race.

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They are not the others.

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They are us, imperfect, complicated, fascinating, human, just like you.

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Let me know how it goes.

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You can write me at contactamusingatgmail.com.

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Thank you so much to all of you who stuck around during this first season of A Musing.

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A new season will come around, I promise.

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And with new topics, also new ways of discussing those topics, so stay tuned for all of it.

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In the meantime, please tell someone in your life about these episodes.

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There’s something in here for everybody to pause, contemplate, learn, and apply.

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Subscribe or follow so you don’t miss the next season.

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You can find this podcast on Apple Podcasts, Google Podcasts, Spotify, iHeartRadio, Stitcher, and anywhere else you can find podcasts.

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Catch you in the next season.