Understanding

I went to a panel discussion on racism today, which opened with this question, posed by a First Nations woman.

"How come First Nations people are called savages? We smoke a pipe and have the smoke carry our prayers to the creator. In Christianity, people eat a piece of bread representing the body of Christ, which sounds like cannibalism to me. Why aren't Christians called savages?"

I thought that was interesting, because anyone being called a savage would say their culture isn't being fully understood.

A lot of problems are caused by misunderstandings or the failure to at least try to understand. And, even if people do understand, they might not care about the other people's feelings or beliefs.

If people tried to truly understand where each other is coming from there might be less name calling and fighting.

When a speeding driver cuts me off, I try not to get angry, because what if that person is in a rush to get to the hospital or something. Of course, maybe if I did understand that they were actually just being a jerk then I might get angry and call them a nasty name.

Okay, understanding won't work either. Who am I kidding? There will always be name calling and worse, with or without understanding. That's just how the human race likes to do business on this complicated web we weave.