The Spice of Life

I was listening to Talk of the Nation on NPR yesterday, and they were talking to Bill Bishop, author of The Big Sort: Why the Clustering of Like-Minded America Is Tearing Us Apart. Bishop's view is that when we surround ourselves only with people who agree with our points of view - socially, politically, religiously, or otherwise - we create an extremely polarized world, with extreme consequences. Bishop thinks this clustering (sorry, Kerry, I know you hate that word!) is a threat to our democracy, which is set up to be a healthy exchange of ideas and viewpoints. It was fascinating.

I've also been thinking this week about Morgan Spurlock's program on FX, 30 Days. I love Morgan Spurlock. In fact, I'm bummed that I forgot to invite him to my pop culture dinner party. Y'all might remember Morgan from his film Super Size Me, in which he ate nothing but McDonald's food for 30 days in order to demonstrate how damaging fast food is to our bodies. If you haven't seen the show, 30 Days is a series of similar month-long experiments/experiences.

There are two basic types of 30 day experiments on the show (some done by Morgan himself, and some done by others). First, there are 30 days spent walking a mile in someone else's shoes (such as spending time in jail, living on minimum wage, working in a coal mine, etc.). Second, there are the shows in which someone with one point of view goes to live for 30 days with someone having the opposite point of view. In one show, a pro-choice activist goes to live with a pro-life minister and his wife who run a home for pregnant teenagers. In another show, a homophobic straight man goes to live in the Castro district of San Francisco with two gay men. The idea is that in spending time actually living with real people whose ideas differ from your own, you'll gain an understanding of and respect for their viewpoints, even if you don't change your mind. It's a fabulous concept.

So I've been thinking, if I could spend 30 days with people whose opinion or lifestyle is very different from my own, who would they be? I think I'd benefit from living with a military family, especially one with a family member currently in Iraq. I also think I could learn a lot living with a very right-wing, religious family (not an all-abortion-doctors-should-be-shot family, but a regular all-American family with views opposite my own). So here is my challenge to you: leave me a comment and let me know how you might spend 30 days learning about someone very different than yourself. I think the exercise of just thinking about what those 30 days might entail is beneficial in opening our hearts and minds to our neighbors and fellow human beings on this planet.

And finally, here is a picture of Elliot on the new gym equipment at fun school, with his pal Samantha. Being a child on the autism spectrum, Elliot daily teaches me the value of thinking differently, of putting yourself in someone else's shoes.


So, who will you be? A member of the big sort, or a citizen of true democracy? Let the games begin.