365 Day Journal Challenge

Day 6 - Stretching Minds with New Ideas . . .

"Man's mind, once stretched by a new idea, never regains its original dimensions."

What better way to summarize why we are doing this journal challenge, or why it’s said that people should do something the same way for two weeks and it will develop a new habit. It also shows how important it is for poets to write about things that stretch the perception of those who read them. Reading new ideas and writing them will open your mind and make it that much harder to close.

It is one thing to think of a tragedy in another country when you know no one in that country, have no connection to it other than that they are humans like us and we can feel an empathy and concern about our fellow man. However, one who had been friends with one of another race, religion very different from ones own, or from another country or continent will feel very differently if a tragedy happens in that friend’s town, country, or to someone who shares their faith. What is the difference? You have stretched your mind to encompass views from another person that may not be the same as yours but once your mind stretches, how can we go back to being small minded and judgmental about a certain group of people.

My stepfather is Dutch and came to America at 20 to serve for our country in Vietnam. He was my youngest son’s age (3) when Hitler’s Army went door to door, attic to attic (shooting in attic to attic), searching for Jews, or any other group he thought were helping the Jews. This was 1943 and he remembers learning to count by sitting in their attic counting the bombs. Nazi soldiers took him once, shaved a swastika in his hair then left him in his neighborhood to find his way home. He was 3-4 yrs old and his father, a Dutch police officer, had to shave his sons head in winter to get rid of the swastika. His father also hid people in their home as they were escaping Holland.

And yet, this man and my mother had a German exchange student about seven years ago, long after I had left the roost. He is a very bright young man who is studying international relations and has been to many different countries to attend college programs to learn about their governments. I am proud of Christian for having the guts give the South a look. You know what he said. The South, like Germany, is known for doing something in the past that people can’t seem to forget (civil rights issues) and we, like Germany, are trying to rectify the situation. The public sentiment there, in his opinion, is still much like here in that they don’t want to be thought of as still harboring hatred toward the Jews (or African Americans in our case) and it is very hard for them when they go to other countries b/c they think all Germans were Nazi’s. His parents are both school teachers and he doesn’t recall there being folks in his family who had anything to do with the Nazi party. He opened my eyes but also my step father’s, although being Europe, he already had the opportunity to be close neighbors with those of different cultures, languages, etc and despite his childhood, he was more open minded to start with than most in my country.

Others I have known, a friend whose husband (also a friend) is Muslim and is from a middle eastern country (moved here as a child), a Guatemalan couple in my town, friends from Brazil, my own trip to Bolivia and Brazil, having good friends from Japan who stayed with us (known through karate), and many other experiences and acquaintances have broadened my mind and made it difficult to impossible to say any pat statement about a culture like they all are the same way. It also makes a tragedy like what happened in India so much more real just for the connections made at wdc, such as Dr. Taher and others on Team India (Project Write World) that I have had the pleasure of competing with (not so much against) and the other countries represented in that contest.

It makes me disgusted to hear others generalize about a culture/race/religion and living in a very small town now, I do hear things that are just plain ignorant. That just goes to show that if you aren’t exposed to differences, you are truly at a disadvantage. And those who have had their minds stretched are much better for the experience and are also able to be much better citizens of the world because it seems that the mind is a one way street-Its difficult to shrink what you have expanded.


SWPoet





** Image ID #1265210 Unavailable **

** Image ID #1192380 Unavailable **

** Image ID #1410321 Unavailable **

** Image ID #swpoet.JPG Unavailable **