Monday, May 19, 2014

Tolerance: a Simple Recipe for Harmony



Many world problems originate from intolerance. People do not tolerate one another simply because one seems “different”. You are judged based on your race, religion, political preferences, or simply because of the way you see the world. Perhaps several years ago when the world was not connected through the internet, you could encounter a situation when a traveler from a different part of the world was considered abnormal. Fortunately this has changed a lot; the internet has helped people become aware that there are others that think and look differently. Unfortunately, we still find many people that still find it hard to accept those differences.

How boring this world would be if we all looked the same, had the same skin color, hair and eyes. The beauty of our human nature originates from the diversity caused by tiny changes in our DNA, changes that give us color and shape. How boring this world would be if we all believed the same, if we all had the same costumes and agreed to a single way of understanding the world. We must accept the fact that we are not identical, and that there’s not an absolute true for anything. You have to be a fool, an ignorant or lazy person to not even try to understand why others think and look differently. Several human lives could have been saved already if we all had empathy, putting ourselves into other’s shoes, trying to respect and understand why others disagree on what we believe is logical. Open your mind and heart to understand others, try to see the world through the eyes of those who disagree with you. Explore other paths, other cultures; do not be afraid of being  in their shoes.

A person’s life is shaped by experiences, some tougher than others. Our families, surroundings, the date and country where we were born, create a particular set of conditions that define most of what we are. You can not judge a person without even trying to consider their origin.  Your human nature makes you biased to what seems comfortable to you. You were taught in a certain way that seems right to you, but perhaps others that were taught differently might have other great insights to offer you. 

Tolerance is powerful weapon that has helped different ethnical groups become accepted in our society. If you tolerate the ideas of others and accept that we are different by nature, then, and only then, we will be able to create a better tomorrow for the upcoming generations.

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