SENTINAL WATCH July 2, 2007 Issue

DEFYING DIFFERENCES WITH LOVE

ANNETTE BRIDGES

THE WORLD SEEMS trapped in perpetual "us and them" warfare—caught in the habitual groupings of nationality, age, race, and culture that highlight individual differences, rather than similarities.

At an early age we learn to pick sides for spelling bees, relay, baseball, or math teams. The result? In our desire to be with what's familiar, we may become conditioned to look for and avoid what's different—not simply in acquaintances but in activities, choice of food, travel. Such a tendency imposes on one's natural leaning to love others, and is a perspective that has negative implications for humanity as a whole.

The story I once heard of a Midwestern farmer defies that perspective. Year after year, he'd won a blue ribbon for his entry in the corn competition at his state fair. Then a newspaper reporter discovered that the farmer shared his own seed corn with neighbors. The reporter was surprised, since those neighbors entered that same competition. The farmer explained that wind carries the corn pollen from field to field: "If my neighbors grow inferior corn, cross-pollination will steadily degrade the quality of my corn. If I am to grow good corn, I must help my neighbors grow good corn."