YOU DIFFERENT, I DIFFERENT TOO BUT WE SPEAK SAME LANGUAGE

I love the way the chapter was introduced. It stated that encountering people with different point and taking on issues that we are not familiar with makes "issues once at margin of our vision become the focus of our live. it brings to perspective issues that we might not have really understood to become more clear and give us a sense of direction. This is particularly exemplified in the Hazel Wolf story and how she became involved with the environmental movement. Loeb said that "upon accepting the challenge of trying to shape a different future, we feel a sense of larger purpose". This is I think is the reason for taking on issue that are different from yours. Because you learn from them. You get to widen your horizon and gain new understanding of people and issues surrounding you. I have come to experience and understand other groups apart from the one's I am involved in by taking on their ideas and interacting with them. We are all different and like it says in the book, groups that exclude others are not communities but are cliques. That is a road block to the sense of community and so we cannot move forward if we don't pass that barrier.. I especially love the story about C.P. Ellis and how he changed from being a Ku Klux Klan Exalted Cyclops to fighting community issues with a black woman he despised at first. This was because he learnt to take the idea about others and that which we do not understand through working with them and not through separation. We all have our individualistic ideas and point of view but when we focus on just those, we get to miss the greater blessing we might experience by interacting with those different from us. Through a Global leadership retreat, i got to experience and understand the Vietnamese Culture and way of life. We all have our own different languages(views) but we can not let ourselves be restricted by it. Learning a new languages(way of life) exposes us to better opportunities in life.