Duly Noted: We’re all made of the same stuff.

By Jarrett in : Duly Noted, Jarrett Hill // Nov 17 2010

I was listening to India.Arie’s “God Is Real” and she said “we’re all made of the same stuff as the earth and the stars,” it set my mind off as ADD often does.

Click here to find Voyage to India, including God is Real, on iTunes.

I thought about Maya Angelou’s quote that has really been driver behind a lot of work I’ve done and what I believe to be some of the truest wisdom, “We’re all more alike than we are different.”

Lately I’ve been traveling more than I ever have in my life. I was recently walking down the street in a neighborhood in Puntarenas, Costa Rica having a conversation with a new friend and as we were talking we saw a little kid with popsicle laughing and chatting with another little kid, speaking Spanish.

I told my friend that seeing children always makes these places real for me. It seems like when I visit all of these places I’ve gotten to visit, seeing adults living their everyday lives, walking down the city streets, having a meal, or otherwise, it makes me see culture and how our lives vary from one place to another.
But when I see kids, they all strike me as the same for some reason. They all have the innocence and curiosity we long for as adults. They all find pleasure in the simplicity of their lives, as we pay money to do as adults. They walk down the street lightly and carelessly, often without purpose, but simple leisure, as we adults have so often simp forgotten how to do.

Then they start speaking. I’m always fascinated to hear children speaking in any other language than English. Maybe it’s me being an idiot American, I like to find any other explanation than the aforementioned, but it’s really demonstrative of how we begin to shape, form, and find who we’ll be at such an early age. We speak a certain language, we grow up in a certain region, we take in the sociocultural cues all around us and make decisions on how to process them, navigate the analysis, and choose the path that follows.

We all do it. Often unconsciously. But we do it.

Then, at some point our minds begin to set apart groups of people by culture, race, socio-economic status, educational level, class-level and on and on… Finding every bit of difference we can to male us better than, less than, higher than, smarter than, worse-off than, or whatever you choose.

Recently on ship, I’ve consistently worked as part of a team that usually just under a thousand people, representing over 50 different countries around the world. I’ve gotten to see how differently people eat, communicate, enjoy leisure time, and simply live. At the end of some long days I find myself in our staff bar catching up with my co-workers and it’s the time of the day where you get to almost see everyone as the same. Tired. Relaxing. Enjoying the company of those that surround them.

All of this reminding me that of all the ways as kids growing into adults that we took left-hand turns here, stopped there for a while, and completely changed course somewhere else, we all started out with popsicles, chatting with our similarly aged children and that “we’re all more alike than we are different.”

Duly noted.

j.