Travel notebook #2

Chinatown, Westminster, London, United Kingdom. Personal archive

Large metropolises have the gift of bringing with them a mix of cultures and corners in which you can travel to different countries through cuisine, decorations and passers-by who speak their native language with yours.

This rich mix of people always makes me think about what unites us as human beings.

Immigrants who leave their homelands without a return date, put themselves in a situation of adapting to a reality that, at first glance, has everything to be completely outside of what has been their comfort zone since then.

If for a given moment we might think that these immigrants would lose their roots and customs, if we put ourselves in their shoes and start looking around, we come across the obvious. Their initial references to customs and practices, to a large extent, remain with them in some way, even if they are far from the land where they were born.

And proof of this maintenance, or search for it, is in the different neighborhoods that are made up of a majority of immigrants from a certain country.

Here in Greater London we have some examples of this. Chinatown, located close to the trendy Soho region, was established as a corner not not just Chinese cuisine, but also markets, health clinics, convenience stores and other establishments that take us on a dive into Chinese culture.

Southall, in the borough of Ealing, is known as "Little India". A significant number of Indians and their descendants live there, a characteristic that is also evident in the types of existing establishments, items sold in the market and decorations seen in the region.

All these cultural islands, among the many others that I have seen, even though they may initially point to a kind of cultural clustering, they still lead me to identify something that unites us as human beings, which is the following: We seek to maintain our most intimate references even when we propose to live the new.

That said, we can then think about the importance of what makes us different in our lives. Those traits that, even if they are not the standard of the given environment in which we place ourselves, still remain non-negotiable for us, they are still what make us recognize ourselves as we are.

And if we allow ourselves to reflect a little more, we can come to the following understanding: What differentiates us is also what unites us.

If I start from the assumption that what is different in me is relevant just as what is different in others is important to them, it is in this space of understanding that our common point lives. For both of us, the difference we have matters for us to be who we are.

And you might be thinking “Okay, cool Jessica, but what is the practical sense of this?”

Well, these points I raised may seem like just ramblings with no practical implications, but, stay here with me for one more reflection to see how this is not the case.

At the moment we live in, we are still faced with the idea that a group of people (society, country, work team, company) only makes sense as such if they reproduce behaviors understood as normal in that context, or, in other words , patterns of behavior that a majority or group that holds power (of minds and hearts) determines to be right.

In this reflection I consider those points in our lives that are up to us to decide and that, broadly speaking, do not cause negative effects on the freedom of others.

Considering this space of intimacy of being, we can say that we are still led to follow standards regarding religion, clothing, food, relationships, political opinion, professional choice among many other topics.

Still in the 21st century, people are judged for following what is not considered “normal” in the society in which they find themselves. So many other people suffer racial, gender, religious and other prejudices, which prevent them from being in a certain work environment, exercising certain rights, relating to those they feel they should relate to, in the way they want to relate, without being the target of oppression (social, state, family).

Considering this context, we can then say that we still live under the dictatorship of what is said to be normal, with this normal being, for the most part, a cluster of toxic standards that greatly impede us to express what really resonates with us.

Now, let's change this logic and understand that the normal thing from this moment on is to be non-normal, the normal thing is to be different, the standard is not to have a single standard. That would be revolutionary, wouldn't it?

Imagine a society in which judgmental looks are not directed at those who express themselves authentically and thus allow themselves to be at ease with themselves and everyone around them; Imagine work meetings in which people feel cornered into disagreeing with a colleague because they don't have the same vision; Just imagine a Government in which public policies were constructed and executed based on a process committed to considering and meeting as many differences as possible.

Understanding difference as something that is dear to us is a point that unites us, it is a common point. Considering this factor is a path to solutions that increasingly serve the construction of a common and happy future for all humanity and all beings that interact with it on this Earth.

Having said all of this, I want you to know that I do not expect you to agree with me or consider the words I said to be absolute truths, they are not for me and I do not expect them to be for you either.

Here, I allow myself to question and reflect on what the different layers of people, situations, human and social movements have to tell us. Therefore, I reflect, (re)think and share as a cycle of refining and broadening of mind and vision.

Up to this point, what I have experienced has proven to me that being in the space of observation, questioning and mutability is also co-creating new realities where everything that has been can be rethought to make sense today and allow for a future that is even more coherent and happy for us.

For those who were encouraged to reflect more and apply the revolutionary view that “Difference is what unites us”, I leave here the tip to look for communication, project development and leadership tools based on Non-violence, Empathy, Diversity and Inclusion.

Lucky for us that the new normal has already made its appearance.

I hope I have contributed in some way to good insights and invitations to refine your perceptions about others, life and everything else that surrounds you.

I am Jéssica Leite, Futurist, Researcher, Artist, Therapist and an eternal passionate and practitioner of the possibility of living in a world with more Love, Equity and Prosperity.