Unfamiliar.

[from awhile back; semi-edited 5.2008.]

There's something incredibly scary about meeting and getting to know new people (yes, this coming from the girl who randomly talks with people walking down the street on a more regular basis than not). About the unfamiliar becoming the familiar.

When we get to know someone, we understand their quirks and motives. No longer can they be written off as odd nor can we act without regard to their emotions. We begin to apply reason to why someone behaves a certain way or pursues something differently. We're strangers no longer.

It's simple for me to be me without knowing you. I can continue walking down the street, believing what I will. Meeting you, changes me; challenges me. I can't walk down the street without recalling our conversation, asking how you are. Looking at something from your perspective.

Will we, the human race, ever learn to view the world from another perspective?

The optimist says yes. I refuse to believe people cannot change, cannot learn, cannot meet and cannot connect. The collective we cannot run away from meeting new people.

You see, racism happens because people didn't venture out, didn't say hello, didn't hear a stranger's story. Racism happens because the unfamiliar remained unfamiliar.

And with that, I say, "hello and how do you do?"