The Need and Value of Learning Things from Other People Different from You

Many times in my life, I have learned something or been helped by someone who is not quite like me.  At first, there’s an internal natural aversion to letting someone into my life who’s not in my “clique”, unless it’s someone who provides an immediate service that benefits ME, such as a mechanic, fast-food worker, etc.  I’m not saying that I’m COMPLETELY like this, but that, like most other people, at times I noticed growing up that I tended to gravitate primarily towards other people who accepted me for me or who shared similar interests as me that I could thus relate to.  All that being said, it’s hit me off and on through life how special it is to be stretched beyond my comfort zone and to reach out to someone who may be very different from me.  This can be an annoying relative or someone of a different ethnicity who shares almost no resemblance to me in the way they look or in life-pursuit.  If nothing else, by reaching out and getting to know this person a little bit and/or helping them, I’m able to give them the message that someone cares as well as in some cases meeting an immediate need that they may have.  Through this contact, we may relationally rub off on each other and then through that interaction one of us may share something about life that the other did not know.  This is why movies like “The Breakfast Club”, “SpaceBalls”, or “The Princess Bride”, to name a few, can be so entertaining and effective on a few levels, because they bring together a weird cast of characters or “strange bedfellows” who wouldn’t normally interact but through that interaction they learn some significant things about life and each other and they realize that this couldn’t have been otherwise ascertained without doing so.  Plus, when we resort to just hanging out in our own little circle of friends who are similar to us, we tend to relationally atrophy like old muscles, not grow as a human being, and assume that we’re completely OK and top-notch when sometimes we may not be.  That’s why going to college, as one example, can be so fruitful and enlightening, because it provides an educational and social labratory that brings people out of their shells that’s not always done to that degree in people’s own home-towns or living rooms.  In conclusion, it’s important to look beyond one’s navel and to get to know others “unlike” them in life, because not only will one grow, but they may find out that that particular stranger isn’t so “unlike” them after all!