MORE THAN DIVERSITY
We become not a melting pot but a mosaic. Different people, different beliefs, different yearnings, different hopes, different dreams.
I joke with a gentleman in the deli area of the grocery as I wait for my turn. Hurry and I have been unhealthy comrades lately. Being in the moment is my current goal. The man has a dark green melon in his cart that could feed a family of 16. We talk about the beauty of watermelon. Of water. He says that the human body contains a large proportion of H2O. We celebrate its importance and laugh about how years ago no one would have bought bottled water. We wish one another a blessed day as he continues to the next aisle.
I am grateful to greet others and speak simple messages of recognition. I nod to a store employee and a mother with a baby. The light brown employee and olive-skinned mama wish me well.
A woman with hair as red as mine faces me as we approach from opposite directions. I smile. She speaks about the high cost of groceries and its difficulties for many families. I think we understand one another until she says she supports Governor DeSantis. “We have enough diversity,” she adds.
I say that I disagree but don’t pursue an issue that doesn’t belong in the political realm because the government can’t decide who is human and who is not.
Instead, I recall the previous day. I was in a hospital setting and heard a little girl say to her mother as they entered the registration area, “I will be the doctor.” If only her innocence could leak into the world. And the beauty of her color could be appreciated. The other individuals I spoke to in the store today also wore different shades of color, from peach to umber.
Diversity. Forget limiting it with definitions. Reach for an understanding of the larger world.
terrypetersen 