The label as ticket to understanding and being understood

 A friend recently informed me that the new(ish) term for conditions such as ADD is 'neurodiversity'. I thought this was really good because it takes the shame and sense of 'being wrong' from a condition. Which anyway is not true. As my friend explained, one can have laser-like focus for some things but be completely scattered about other things. But diversity indicates that there is more than one way for your synapses to fire together,more than one way for the brain to make sense of the world, more than one way to cope, and therefore, importantly, more than one way to survive.

One of the chief virtues of diversity, I think, is that it presupposes coexistence. And coexistence in turn presupposes safety and absence of threat. Then why do we get so triggered when we encounter something different or unfamiliar? Because, I feel, the lack of diversity does not really present a clear and present danger. To see the danger of excessive homogenization, one needs to take a long-term and very wide view. That perhaps is too much trouble and that may be a little scary - because to to think about everybody means to think of everybody and nobody really knows everybody. So, one will have to accept to oneself that there is so much that is not known. And it is so unfamiliar and sketchy. That may be the rub. 

One way to overcome this is perhaps aligning with advice I heard from a stylist once. She said that before you buy anything new, think of 3 different kinds of outfits you could come up with it, without pairing it with anything black, white, navy or denim. The new piece must go with at least three other elements in your wardrobe when it comes to prints, textures, colours, etc. That's when you know it's a fit and it will be worn and won't remain like a funky novelty item. 

To think of an extended 'family' so to speak is actually a habit. t doesn't (always or necessarily) have to spring from the goodness of one's heart. If one has to think of a value one has than see how it may affect oneself, one's family, someone from a different country that you know, and someone from a different country that you don't know, one may start getting a little sensitized to the interconnectedness and the ripple effect of thoughts across groups. I don't know. It seems sketchy. As in why should I think of a Swedish photographer when deciding between buying poppy or parsley? But perhaps the fact that I have thought of her will stretch my consciousness just that much so that when the full embracing has to happen (if it ever does), I don't snap and break.