People: the same and different

October 17, 2012

The world was made up of people putting one foot in front of the other;

and a life might apear ordinary simply because the person living it
had been doing so for a long time.

Harold could no longer pass a stranger
without acknowledging the truth
that everyone was the same,
and also unique,
and that this was the dilemma of being human.

~Rachel Joyce, The Unlikely Pilgrimage of Harold Fry

When I read this passage, I loved it.
People ARE at once the same and unique
just like snowflakes.Our shared humanity gives us a natural way to relate,
and to focus on our similarities
instead of our differences.
It makes me wonder why so many of us zero in on how we’re different
rather than how we’re all human.

It’s our differences that engage us
and keep us interested in one another, though.
What a boring world it would be if we’re all alike.

When I people-watch, I love to look
at average-appearing people
and wonder
what wonders might really be going on
in their lives.

Maybe this one’s an important physicist
and that one’s related to Abraham Lincoln
or Harriet Tubman.
Maybe she writes poetry
and the guy with a cane almost died in World War II.
That older woman sings like an angel
and that teenager dressed like a thug can draw like a dream.

Looking at the mass of people
that make up humanity
I know that each one has a story
that makes us unique
and together we make up the wonderfully diverse world
that I love.

Snow

The world was made up of people putting one foot in front of the other; 

and a life might apear ordinary simply because the person living it 
had been doing so for a long time.

Harold could no longer pass a stranger 
without acknowledging the truth
that everyone was the same, 
and also unique,
and that this was the dilemma of being human.
~Rachel Joyce
The Unlikely Pilgrimage of Harold Fry


When I read this passage, I loved it.
People ARE at once the same and unique
just like snowflakes.Our shared humanity gives us a natural way to relate,
and to focus on our similarities
instead of our differences.
It makes me wonder why so many of us zero in on how we’re different
rather than how we’re all human.

It’s our differences that engage us
and keep us interested in one another, though.
What a boring world it would be if we’re all alike.

When I people-watch, I love to look
at average-appearing people
and wonder
what wonders might really be going on
in their lives.

Maybe this one’s an important physicist
and that one’s related to Abraham Lincoln
or Harriet Tubman.
Maybe she writes poetry
and the guy with a cane almost died in World War II.
That older woman sings like an angel
and that teenager dressed like a thug can draw like a dream.

Looking at the mass of people
that make up humanity
I know that each one has a story
that makes us unique
and together we make up the wonderfully diverse world
that I love.

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