3-30-11 aha

We watched the TED talk with Chimamanda Adichie last week.  I have been thinking about it ever since.  I really liked her idea of a "single story", it is so true of people in general. We form our opinions from what we see and from our own experiences and that is what creates that story.  I don't think she was saying that is all a bad thing, but just to keep in mind that it is only one piece of a very large tapestry. We need to keep our minds open to more stories to add to our collection. In some ways it explains our ignorance, does not excuse it but does put it in to a new perspective. People are not always bias on purpose they have just never had the chance to hear other stories. When your view of the world starts to expand only then do you really begin to realize how limited it had been and only then will you start to work to hear more than the one story. I grew up in a small town but was close enough to Iowa City that I had a chance to see a little more than the small town story. I loved to go and sit in downtown Iowa City and just watch people. There were people from all over the world and I could see the different clothing and hear many different languages. It was an awesome experience. I was also lucky to have a mother that valued a good story so we were always hearing stories from different cultures, we went to the library often. And yet when I went to college I was still amazed at how much I did not know.