Why the packaging of life is keeping you from living

“A brown tag on a small present wrapped in brown paper” by Annie Spratt on Unsplash

We spend so much time wrapped up in the packaging of life. We lose sight of larger patterns and bigger pictures. This is where stereotypes begin. With our constant fixation on the nitty-gritty details of what makes you different than me and our obsession with that difference. We are obsessed with the difference because we think it is bad. One of us must be wrong, so we live to prove our own rightness. Instead of loving the diversity of us.

I think we are all looking in the wrong direction when we talk about inequality. We have become obsessed with the color of our skin, the size of our body, and our gender among other external things. The real danger is thinking that everyone who thinks differently than ourselves is wrong, labeling them as less than human because their beliefs differ from our own.

Mass media loves to highlight these differences and thrives whenever contention arises among groups. As long as fighting of some kind is going on, there is news to report. The obsession with differences is destroying the diversity of our culture. It is not just about skin. If you think differently than your neighbor can you still get along? Perhaps you choose to parent differently, or educate your children differently. Perhaps you use different medicine or watch a different news channel.