Humainologie creative dialogue Importance of Cultural Diversity Wednesday February 10

“Strength lies in differences, not in similarities.” - Stephen R. Covey

“I can imagine nothing more terrifying than an Eternity filled with men who were all the same. The only thing which has made life bearable…has been the diversity of creatures on the surface of the globe.” - T.H. White, The Book of Merlyn

As I begin to read Don Smith’s richly detailed narrative (published in 2021) Seen but Not Seen: Influential Canadians and the First Nations from the 1840s to Today, I am learning of the era of John A. Macdonald, when “assimilation” of First Nations peoples was considered progressive. How can “great leaders” be so naïve?!

When dealing with a problem or an opportunity, it is usually best to develop several options in your approach. Different cultures will provide us with different time-tested options for the challenges and opportunities that lie ahead. Many of you will be familiar with some of the benefits we have received from Japanese culture, for example, from Ikebana to Wabi Sabi. As climate change and other existential challenges are on the rise, would it not be timely to look to Indigenous North American cultures for possible solutions? Or for that matter, I would even guess that Japanese culture has ideas and life skills that would help us rise to meet the challenges on the road ahead.

Last week our topic was Intercultural Communication. I will suggest the Importance of Cultural Diversity as our topic for this week.

As luck would have it, I recently stumbled on an excellent resource for us. Dr. Jui-shan Chang is originally from Taiwan and more recently she has been teaching sociology classes at the University of Melbourne, where she fosters cultural diversity. Here is a link https://bit.ly/2MELNLu to her article “A Trans-Cultural Wisdom Bank in the Classroom: Making Cultural Diversity a Key Resource in Teaching and Learning.”

Drawing partly on the ideas I gained from Dr. Chang, I have created a menu of options and good questions for our team practice tomorrow Wednesday February 10. I have appended these below, along with (again) the Zoom link.

Life is beautiful, and cultural diversity will help us explore that beauty!

Toot sweet,

Arthur

Guidelines for a creative dialogue on cultural diversity

At our team practice on Wednesday, February 10 we may be lucky enough to have participants from cultures as diverse as east African, west African, North American, Japanese, and more. The basic idea for team practice is to tap into that wealth of resources. For February 10 and going forward, please keep three things in mind:

1. Culture can be defined in many ways (it’s all very wabi sabi) but let’s use a standard definition as our reference for now: “the customs, arts, social institutions, and achievements of a particular nation, people, or other social group.” Stoicism, on the other hand, would be considered a school of philosophy that arose from the culture of ancient Greece.

2. There are many “great leaders” who have considered their own culture “superior” (Adolf Hitler comes to mind). That might or might not be OK, but our aim going forward is to be curious. We want to empower our curiosity and our ability to ask good questions. Indira Gandhi pointed out that “the power to question is the basis of all human progress.”

3. Accordingly, we should intentionally build our awareness that “the other person” is a valuable resource for each of us, and perhaps especially so if they are from a cultural background very different from ours.

I’ve appended some good questions below. As a creative dialogue artist, you will be able to come up with much better questions of your own, but just in case you don’t have time to think about it before team practice, these will at least get us started.

· First, here is a kaleidoscope of questions to ask someone from a different culture, in case you have the chance to tap into their experience:

o Please tell me a little about what you have learned (from the culture of your youth) about how a person should relate to people from other cultures. In your experience, how well did people that you knew practice the best wisdom from their own culture on that issue (how to relate to people from other cultures)? Did they tend to be rude? Respectful? Did they tend to ignore people from a very different culture?

o What cross-cultural experiences have you personally had that you found to be joyful or otherwise beneficial in your own life?

• Of course, culture is always evolving, and I wonder how ideas and attitudes in your culture have changed about each of the following: acceptable sexual norms, including gender identity; people with disabilities; extremes of wealth and poverty; the importance of educating women; competitiveness (being a winner or a loser).

o Please share some wisdom from your culture on each of the following topics:

§ How can I cope with old age and death?

§ What makes a good love relationship and a good marriage?

§ How should I choose a job, career, or calling?

§ What can I learn from your culture about how to find happiness in life?

§ What can I learn from your culture about what really gives life meaning?

o If you had to pick one life skill or way of thinking or insight from your culture that you think might benefit people of my cultural background, what would that life skill or way of thinking or insight be?

· Second, here are three questions that begin with reference to your personal life and from there lead to a good question for you to ask a person from another culture.

o Think of one of the darkest, most difficult time of your life. Describe it briefly to someone from another culture and then ask whether in that other culture, this kind of darkness and difficulty is a very familiar part of many people’s lives.

o Describe to a person from another culture something that you consider one of your greatest achievements before you reached thirty years of age, and then ask that other person whether they themselves or young adults from their culture would find that particular achievement something to aspire to (a goal they would find inspiring). Think of one really positive thing about your own culture as you experienced it when you were young; and also one very negative thing. Then ask the person from another culture whether, for each of those things (positive and negative), it was at all common in their culture. (For example, racism was very widespread in the culture of North Carolina where I grew up, and I could ask someone at team practice on February 10 whether racism was at all common in their culture.)

Here’s the Zoom link:

Topic: Humainologie creative dialogue team practice Time: February 10, 2021 06:30 PM Mountain Time (US and Canada) Every week on Wed, until Feb 24, 2021, 8 occurrence(s) Feb 10, 2021 06:30 PM Feb 17, 2021 06:30 PM Feb 24, 2021 06:30 PM Join Zoom Meeting https://us02web.zoom.us/j/81306921476?pwd=QnJ3bkFvSXVQSWVacXJ4Wml4cTEwUT09 Meeting ID: 813 0692 1476 Passcode: 12345