Why we should interact more

Why I associate a lemon with interaction

After I finished high school and the compulsory military service in Switzerland, I didn't feel ready to continue my professional path. The miliatary service had quite a bad impact on me and I needed something new. I came up with the idea to go 3 months to spain to learn the language. I left Switzerland and with no spanish knowledge at all, I travelled to El Puerto de Santa Maria in the southern provinz of Anadalusia.

It was such a beautiful place and every morning I walked 30 minutes from the house of my host family to the language school in the historic center of the town. This school had a big Patio, an interior garden and in this garden there was a huge lemon tree. I've spent hours around this tree in deep conversation and debates with people from all over the world. This is why the lemon is for me a kind of symbol for talking and exchanging. This was a real highlight.

We need to exchange more and come together in thoughts and discussions

I realized that with the development of the internet, people where more and more finding interaction in areas that supported their own line of thoughts. We go to the places where we hear what we want to hear and this makes us believe that everybody thinks like us. This makes it difficult to understand people that have actually a different point of view. I believe that this translates into a lack of tolerance and understanding.

Building your opinions

I think it is necessary that we try to interact with people that do not share our thoughts or beliefs. I find in challenging to talk with others and to try to understand their point of view without judging. I think it is also important to keep a certain open mind and to maybe evaluate if the other persons opinion has some truth in it.

The secret is to keep it civilised

On social media platforms, I often see that people don't try to listen to others and prefer to ridiculise them and their line of thought. Why can't we interact in a civilised way with people who think differently? I believe it is because we are not used to it anymore. That is why I believe we should interact more, especially with people who share other thoughts than we do.

If we believe that we are always right, how can we learn anyhting at all? We learn from the others, from reading them, from listening to them and from evaluating their message and maybe from adopting part of it...

Let's interact more on this blockchain, let's do it in a civilised way and let's learn from the others. Let's do in a way that respects their beliefs and their integrity.

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A project run by @achim03