The world is huge and even the best of us, know just a tiny fraction of it. Million-mile-per-year frequent fliers have only seen a small sliver of the world, only met a tiny number of people, and only witnessed a small part of the remarkable diversity of the world. Compared to the limits of what is out there, even the most savvy traveler knows just a little bit more than someone who has spent all their life in a small village.
It is only logical that only a narrow set of human experiences and ways of being are considered “natural” for any of us and that other ways of being seem more or less different. However, people respond to diversity in remarkably different ways. Why is this?
What matters more than absolute exposure are attitudes we pick up along the way and the mental models we develop. People who have been exposed to more diversity tend to think of differences as the norm and hence approach them with curiosity and openness as opposed to people who have lived relatively homogeneous lives and, thus, frame differences as an exception and approach it defensively.
For both sets of people, it is extremely important to treat diversity and inclusion as lifelong learning journeys and not as fixed destinations. The value of this shows up in meeting people who, in spite of their age, seem full of life and acceptance and excitement about new things, cultural moments. Whereas there are others who become crusty much sooner.
This attitude has been immortalized in the Dylan song – The Times They Are A-Changin”
Lyrics
Come gather ’round, people
Wherever you roam
And admit that the waters
Around you have grown
And accept it that soon
You’ll be drenched to the bone
If your time to you is worth savin’
And you better start swimmin’
Or you’ll sink like a stone
For the times they are a-changin’
Come writers and critics
Who prophesize with your pen
And keep your eyes wide
The chance won’t come again
And don’t speak too soon
For the wheel’s still in spin
And there’s no tellin’ who
That it’s namin’
For the loser now
Will be later to win
For the times they are a-changin’
Come senators, congressmen
Please heed the call
Don’t stand in the doorway
Don’t block up the hall
For he that gets hurt
Will be he who has stalled
The battle outside ragin’
Will soon shake your windows
And rattle your walls
For the times they are a-changin’
Come mothers and fathers
Throughout the land
And don’t criticize
What you can’t understand
Your sons and your daughters
Are beyond your command
Your old road is rapidly agin’
Please get out of the new one
If you can’t lend your hand
For the times they are a-changin’
The line it is drawn
The curse it is cast
The slow one now
Will later be fast
As the present now
Will later be past
The order is rapidly fadin’
And the first one now
Will later be last
For the times they are a-changin’
Source: LyricFind
Songwriters: Bob Dylan