Wanzology

One Must Respect The Differences

  Whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa. Hey, what's going on? The Wanz is in the house, and it is another episode of WANZOLOGY. Welcome to your Wednesday WANZOLOGY session, and, uh, how ya doing? You good? I hope so. Hope you and yours are living life vigorously. Mm-Hmm, . So today, uh, another chapter of #THEBOOKOFWANZ, of course.

This one is, I think, pretty apropos if you're, like, into people watching. Okay? Check this out: ONE MUST RESPECT THE DIFFERENCES IN ORDER TO APPRECIATE THE SIMILARITIES.

Fact. No two people are exactly alike. Fact. There is only one species of human being on the planet. With all the obvious differences between cultures, religions, languages, and dialects, one would think we'd seek out those who are more like us. Well, we do.

You have your circle of friends, maybe that one close friend you talk to every day and do almost everything with. You like the same foods, listen to the same music, appreciate and are attracted to the same things in the opposite sex. What if you looked outside your circle towards the unfamiliar? What if you found similarities in those you thought were so different? How cool would that be? It's like finding a new friend, almost. Even those who are completely different from you have similarities. Even if it's just that you are both fellow human beings. You may not be Christian, Muslim, or Jewish. You may be Black. White, Brown, Yellow, or Red, but you're a human being, just like the rest of us human beings.
Rich, poor, or somewhere in between. Whether you live in a house, apartment, tent next to the freeway, or a bench in the park. You are a human being.

If you're reading this, you've gotten through the level of education that permits you to gather knowledge. If you can gather knowledge, you can pass it to someone with lesser skills than you. You see, humans have always been a tribal species. They gather and live in groups by nature. Even though we seem to do everything in our power to set ourselves apart from one another, we all are doing the same thing, trying to be different. The similarity…we're all humans. Seek out those similarities. Try not to get stuck on the differences.

Yeah, try not to get stuck on the differences. Now, if that sounds easy, that's because it is. We, as humans, we're not very good at it. I just don't see a lot of consistent proof that we're good at it. What I see is criticism and separation because of, I don't like this about that person or that about this person or whatever, which, you know, nobody said you had to marry every person that you didn't like. Nobody said you even had to hang out with them for a period of time, but one thing's for sure. Because they're human, you should acknowledge that they're human.

What does that mean? How do you do that? Well, you know, sometimes it's just a nod. Sometimes it's just a grin. I mean, you don't have to sit down and talk about teenagers.

You don't have to talk about the biochemical makeup of air fresheners. A simple, “Hey, how's it going?”, “I'm good. You?”, “I’m good.” That's it. That's all. Cordiality. Cordiality. Just being cordial to people. How different the world would be if we didn't just look and eyeball somebody from across the room. Grin and nod your head. I don't know. That's what I do. I catch myself all the time and I look at somebody and when they see that I see them, I look away, and I'm trying very hard to get over that because I think it's rude. I shouldn't do that, but the fear of exposing myself to someone different that I may or may not want to have a conversation with, I'm just trying to protect myself. Yeah, like I need protecting, but I'm getting better at it. I'm getting better at it.

Every once in a while, I do a two-hour singing performance at Seattle Tacoma International Airport, and I love the airport. It is like a target rich environment if you're a people watcher. Some people have dogs, and they vary in age range from infants, some in strollers to old people being shuffled around in a, in a wheelchair and everything in between. So, there's plenty of opportunity and being that I'm kind of the loudest one, I'm the one making noise, I'm singing, it's not like I don't attract attention, but over my years of performing, I have learned that people like to be acknowledged. They like to have their presence kind of noticed. So I'll smile at people, or I'll just nod at people, or I'll wave and point. Kids especially. And, you know, they don't really know what to make of me. Either they're stunned and amazed, or they're scared to death, cause I don't look like someone they know, recognize. So yeah, some of them, I might be scary, but, you know, some of them when I smile, they smile back. Some kids are just like that, you know. And then there are the other ones, it's like as soon as you smile at them or they see that you see them, they are like diving behind mom's leg or want to hide somewhere. Which is cool. They're learning, just like we all had to. But the whole looking at somebody and then not acknowledging them is where I work on this, right? And I mean, it's not tremendously difficult. I mean, it doesn't take more than a second, second and a half to just grin and nod at somebody. Or say, “hello”, that’s it, nothing special.

At the airport, I find that when I do that, the person that I encounter changes most times more times than not after the little exchange, either they or I smile a little bit. “What does that mean?”, you ask? That smile a little bit, I just think is the acknowledgement that you've been acknowledged. Nobody likes to be ignored. Nobody.

So, if you're someplace, especially in a whole group of strangers. You never know who you might meet. You might meet that ‘certain’ person. You might meet someone who's ‘like’ that ‘certain’ person that ended up not being the ‘certain’ person, you know what I mean? You might meet someone who is extremely different from what you thought they appeared to be. Cause on the outside we all look like humans. We vary in hair color and eye color and shapes of faces and nose and all in ear, all that stuff, right? The little physical things. That's not what I'm talking about. What I'm talking about is because we have those attributes, because we have two ears, two eyes, and a nose in the middle of our face, because, generally, we’re with someone that we're talking to, because we know them, we're traveling with them, or just hanging out or whatever. Generally, strangers don't really come into our world that often. And that could be because, you know, you give off that signal that you don't want to be bothered,

you don't want to be talked to, but my experience in the airport has led me to believe that There is not one person who does not like to be recognized as being, being acknowledged by a fellow human. “Hey, what's up?”, or just a nod. Maybe a small grin. You never know. You never know.

One time I was out there, and I was kind of trying to extend, I was trying to like, take up time, because I didn't have enough songs to, just keep going one song after another, and every once in a while I get a song in my head that, you know, I remember from sometime in my illustrious growing period, and this one is called “Alone Again Naturally” by Gilbert O'Sullivan. I thought about it and started to sing it. And I got about a third of the way into it and a guy walk by mouthing the words with me. And I smiled at him, he smiled at me as I kept singing and I got to the middle…and then I got about two thirds of the way through the song, and I'm heading towards the end. And he comes walking back by and put something in my chest pocket. And, you know, there wasn't space for me to say thank you, because I was in the middle of a phrase, and I just made sure to nod at him as he walked on his merry way, and I got done with the song.
Now, when I got done with the song, I reached in my pocket, and he had put a hundred dollar bill in there. Never saw that guy again. I don't know what that means. I just know that it happened. Maybe it's a favorite song of his. Maybe it's a favorite song of one of his family members. Maybe it reminds him of a point in life that life was really hard, and he made it through. I have no idea, but what I do know is that for a moment we were in the same place at the same time and we acknowledged each other as humans and for some reason he felt compelled to give me money, which ain't bad. I'm sure that you've had that experience. Somebody just giving you money for, for one reason or another.
Maybe it's a service or a product you provided them, but it's, you know, they gave you money in it and it felt good that they did.

Now, I tell that story because that was a brief encounter with someone who was just walking by and I just happened to be singing there. But it doesn't really matter to me, I mean, you know, I can be walking down the sidewalk and if I, if my eyes meet someone, I will usually nod my head and say “hello” or “hey there” or something just to acknowledge that ‘I see you’, which is funny. I have a friend, that's his thing, “I see you”. If you've seen the movie “Avatar”, you understand what that means, right? To have somebody ‘see’ you, not just view you, but ‘see’ you, what a great feeling that is.

So the challenge I put before you It’s simple. While you're out there in your world, doing your thing, driving your own boat, being your own person, if you happen to meet eyes with another human, acknowledge that they're there. Nothing too fancy, not too hard, nice and easy. Just nod your head, smile at them, or say “hello”, “hi there”, “buenos dias”. How hard could that possibly frickin be? It'd be really cool to find out what happened, what your experience was, I'd love to hear it. I would really love to hear that you did it and I would love to hear what you found out. So if you want to share those thoughts with me, put them in an email and send to info@thewanz.com, info at T H E W A N Z dot com. Maybe I'll read some of the responses in another podcast episode, because, you know, the whole point of WANZOLOGY is looking at life differently because I'm different. I'm different because I figured out a long time ago what I wanted to be And I never gave up on trying to be that, which I wanted to be, except for that one time, but I learned my lesson after a couple of weeks, and went back to it, and without any, uh, planning, I stepped into an opportunity that led to every single dream I'd ever had coming true. I say it all the time. I got a ‘pitch that I could handle’, and I drove it into the gap for extra bases. You know? That opportunity is out there for you as well. Whatever it is that you want to be really successful at or really want to have, it’s out there. but if you're not paying attention, you're going to miss it. And you never know who has the answer to your next question. As my pops always said, “Which is more important, getting the answer or where you get the answer from?” I'll leave that to you.

Thanks for tuning in to another episode of WANZOLOGY! Hey, thanks for tuning in, pass us around. And don't forget, send me an email. I would love to hear what your experience is, but until we meet again, which will probably be next Wednesday, I bid you farewell and adieu.

Bye.