Celebrating Differences

Have you ever looked around yourself and noticed something...that you are different from him, from her, from the bird in the air to the squirrel on the ground. No human whether African, American, Indian, Japanese, Korean, Latin, Female, Male, we're all different. Even identical twins have differences, no one is the same. Though I may be a mix of Scotch-Irish decent you can put me beside another of the same and we will look nothing alike.

My point is that we are all others. History has shown how our otherness has divided humanity into cultures or societies and governments. It has been the line drawn in the sand, but what we don't recognize is that even within our own culture down to our own family units we are still other to anyone is not yourself. I don't see it just along the division of Male/Female that Irigaray discusses, but I see it permeating into all of humanity. But I must say that I agree with Irigaray in that it is time to stop thinking of "other" as a crude, dirty, obscene word and as fact. And it’s a fact that can be celebrated.

Now to be able to celebrate this otherness I agree that a universal neuter language is necessary in order to see these others as a good thing. By having a truly neuter universal language (which as Irigaray would say does not exist-and I agree) then a perspective can be understood, even if we are not of the same truth. I guess my concept would take Irigaray’s idea of living dualistically to a whole new level. I think that the major divide between Male and Female is important to consider, and maybe we each do have our own truths that are separate, but I think this concept must be taken further. For are we not all vastly shaped by our family, community and culture? And within in those circles of life in which we operate are we not influenced to perceive things in a specific way? And wouldn’t that then make my truth that I seek different from that of a truth sought by a girl living in India who is my same age? I agree with Irigaray that the masculine overtones in our language greatly colors many of our patriarchal societies and needs desperately to find a new neuter voice; a voice in which the male and female voice and breath can be understood;  a voice that is about understanding and not about one over the other.

And maybe to realize that voice we need to understand that we are all other. The concept of perception and dividing lines goes past gender, past ethnicity, past family ties and all the way down until we are one and therefore other to all that we term other. Though it’s easy to end there, I don’t wish to end on a thought where one could feel isolated and alone. Rather by recognizing that we are all other and that we all still have ties to others brings back a since of community and livelihood, but think past your normal boundaries of community. For if we are all other are we not then in some way all connected to each other? It’s a beautiful and connecting thing if you think about it, even though it may seem backwards.

It's something to be celebrated.