Hello guys, welcome to my blog. It's the 3rd day of July and also the 3rd day of the #Julyinleo challenge, and the prompt for today is:
Diversity and Tolerance
Every day we get to meet new people, someone we don't know and haven't met before, and there's every possibility that that person you're meeting has either, a belief, culture, or lifestyle that is different from what you are used to.
Variety they say is the spice of life, let me rephrase it diversity is the spice of society. The more diverse we are, the more interesting the society is. For instance, my country Nigeria is one of the nations with the most diversity, and it's really interesting living in Nigeria, apart from the not-so-good areas, Nigeria's diversity is one of the things keeping her together.
Diversity has to do with the inclusion of people of different genders, racial backgrounds, ethnicities, religions, ages, socioeconomic statuses, thought patterns, and experiences. Diversity helps in shaping our individuality because what I believe might not be what you believe in, my thought pattern definitely wouldn't be the same way as yours.
I remember when I had to go to the northern part of my country for my National Youth Service, I remember how it felt having to socialize and associate with people who were different from me, not in skin color or any physical attributes, but just their orientation about life, their perspective on life, their lifestyle was a little different from what I was used to.
My dad used to say that the northerners were one of the most simple beings you could find, not simple as regards their capabilities, more of simple nature, more like they weren't as vain as we southerners were, they lived very simple and easy lives, being content with what they had. He even used to talk about how foodstuff was cheap there as they weren't so profit or gain-conscious to inflate prices of things as we sometimes see over here.
Whenever my dad said these things, I didn't really understand them, I sometimes felt like he was exaggerating with some of the things he said. My dad had served in the customs, so his job was what took him there, I believe that was how he got to see and observe their way of life. When I finally got there, I got to understand most of the things my dad talked about. I once bought a sufficient amount of okra for N50 which was inconceivable where I was coming from. This scenario is just one of the aspects of diversity.
Diversity fosters creativity and innovation amongst us, when we all come together with our diverse thought patterns and opinions, it leads to innovations and solutions. Diversity also helps build an inclusive society, where each individual feels that they are included in the system and valued based on their peculiarity.
For diversity to thrive, we must be willing to accept the next person the way they are, their beliefs, status, religion, and all. This willing acceptance and respect for the various diversity around us is what is known as Tolerance. You don’t have to agree or even understand what the next person stands for, but be able to respect and tolerate them for who they are and what they stand for.
Tolerance is more about recognizing the individuality of people, we can't all be the same, never, come to think of it, if we were the same, where would the fun be? How would we relate with each other, we would just keep doing stereotypic things which would become tiring and exhausting in the long run.
Tolerance in society fosters peace amongst individuals, preventing conflicts and disagreements amongst out.
So when next you meet someone new and you either don't understand or you don't agree with their lifestyle or any other thing about the person, just think about tolerance.
For more information about the #julyinleo challenge, check here
Thank you for stopping by❤
All images are mine, except otherwise stated