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MICHAEL MILLER

SongSoptok | 1/15/2016 |





Diversity, a particular quality that is fully manifest from the furthest reaches of the heavens to the minutest life form that exists on this precious blue marble. It's also a quality in our own species that appears to infect our thoughts with some little state of chaos. In that many appear unable to allow its full expression to be seen and explored.

    
In Northern America both US and Canada we do have a synthesis of Cultures here as many have left their origin homelands and settled here for a assortment of reasons. In many of the bigger cities we can find whole communities where those with similar backgrounds and ethnicity have settled. Familiarity drives many to seek coexistence among those most like themselves, and I suspect it is far easier to live around what you know and have been taught or know best rather than settle where everything you know and cherish is put to the test.


Many find it difficult to examine one’s own culture and beliefs with a critical eye as to what is valuable and less valuable within their sphere and to adopt new perspectives and ideology perhaps not originating within one's own culture. I was always curious about human variety since very early childhood due to the way in which life was imposed and the course thrown upon it. I spent a lot of time in books. Before the age of 12 I had read tales from the far flung reaches of the globe. Tales from the Arabian Nights , Aesop's Fables , Bible Stories , German Fairy Tales , and by the seventh grade had completed "The Iliad" and from there went on to read every myth and legend I could find from Persia, Greece, Rome Spain and Gaul to those Scandinavian countries . Indeed I remember trying to "dress" the part of other nations in my own room but not having the appropriate accoutrements was unable to pull that one off. Of course such a child can only perceive the outward visual differences. And since that time have spent a good deal of time in many minds from different ages and cultures. I have allowed myself to explore and find joy in the many talents and wisdom that can garnish one's own life that have originated from sources not particularly from the immediate inheritance of  my birth family.

   
Since we here have access to the great histories of nations and cultures throughout the ages we can examine more closely how this has affected not only the march of power but for many the desire of conformity. We find that where conformity is NOT required that there are leaps forward in nearly every field that mankind can apply itself. Music, architecture, art, dance , cuisine , education and knowledge as sharing tends inspire many to accomplish a great deal more than if imposed conformity is rigidly enforced . Creativity flourish's where there is freedom of expression. While on a separate perspective I would not want to see the loss of the very individual cultures or to have them disappear as only part of our past. I own books from many countries from philosophy to fiction, and have enjoyed the likes of National Geographic which has brought many of the past and current cultures up for a close inspection.


While I might deplore the histories of the march of world powers over the peoples of the nations and the incontinent applications of injustices, I can freely express my considerations of the fantastic skills and talents that have been manifest and the great achievements in the fields previously mentioned out of all those of ancestral lineages and countries. We can look back upon the millennia and wonder at the great architecture , cloth , manners and systems of beliefs and gather our own conclusions , appreciate the words of wisdom , writing , poetry , and philosophy , their rhetoric , the great thinkers and good men and those truly maniacal that have existed within the various developing peoples from around the globe .Here we can visit those various communities and indulge in our favorite cuisines, buy art , clothing and jewelry , furniture and other sundries from around the earth and different nations. Share stories and commune with those holding homes and businesses within these pockets of ethnicity and truth is most of these skills come from among the "common person" from within these cultures, not those who desire to "buy it " , "hoard it" , or "impose it" .

     
The priceless truths that thread the "common man" among all those existing as we become a more global community. The considerations of justice, fairness, equality , generosity , compassion , health , education and the desire to explore all that is known and yet to become known . Indeed that deeply embedded "need to know" to acquire knowledge, acquire skills, to enjoy life with its every gift and the talents given to mankind are far less appreciated than should be . The trials and failures, the successes, fully demonstrate the need to educate and explore these with a far greater degree of freedom. To encourage others to reach into this diversity, and to share the various threads of ethnicity. You would have to place me among those who desire that conformity is never imposed except in the area Love. Love for life, music, art, architecture, cuisine, individuality, education, skill, talent and endowments of all these communities around the world. And while the pernicious ideology of hatred still bares it's teeth in many parts of the globe we have the ability to focus our own thoughts in leading others to consider all the wonderful and distinctive differences from the many recesses of the world that have made each so worthy of exploring to its fullest. "Bon appétit"


[MICHAEL MILLER]
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