Vive la Difference

I have been reading more of Donald Eadie's "Grain in Winter" and was struck by a section in which he recognises the value of difference - and makes mention of the damage we do when we pretend it's not there. We are not all the same, and how boring life would be if we were, but we do share a common humanity. As Eadie writes: "I have been slow to learn that we are not all the same, despite having been exposed to people whose experience of life is so different and whose language and culture and educational experience is so varied. We are profoundly different yet we are held in the hands of God. And in a polarizing environment this is gospel. The testimony is to more than tolerance, it is to an openness to search for truth, an openness to generosity and an openness to rigour within the roots of the common life. The craft is to seek the common good within our acknowledged differences." (p. 75)