People are people are people are people are . . .

One thing I love about blogging (and about technology in general) is that it brings the world closer together. Through reading other people's blogs and other people reading mine, I get to make friends from around the world.

In fact, just yesterday I learned two new words that I would have otherwise never known--

"Nackered," which means "tired" in South Africa. I learned this from my new blogging friend NMOTB. (Used in a sentence: "I was so nackered last night, that I went right to sleep.")

and

"Wagged," which is used in Australia to mean "skipped" (as in: "I wish we'd wagged school this morning, because we were so wackered.") LOL I learned this term from my new friend Nat in Australia.

I was thinking about all of this yesterday afternoon when my oldest daughter came home from school and excitedly told me about the "Heritage Panel" workshops she'd had. McKenna was invited to be on the 30-student group (there were only 3 freshmen invited, which made it a pretty big deal for her!), which is designed to foster understanding, communication, and friendship between different groups at her school. The students will come back to the school and do various presentations in classes throughout the year.

She said that they did several activities that encouraged them to think about the stereotypes we have of each other, then they discussed the different "isms" so rampant today--things like sexism, racism, ageism, even "ableism" (which I'd never heard of, but apparently refers to our feelings toward disabled people). The group is made up of a cross-section of students at her school, so there are boys, girls, whites, blacks, hispanics, and even kids from other nationalities (she was so excited to meet a guy from Switzerland!).

The activities were great and she especially loved getting to know everyone. She only know four or five of the students to begin with, but said by the end of the day she felt like they were her new friends.

Both McKenna and Delaney would probably tell you that I "preach" to them on this topic more than they'd like (LOL!), but it's something I'm passionate about. We talk often about how Martin Luther King taught us to judge a person by their "character" and not the "color of their skin." And that goes for all the other preconceived notions we have of other people--not just skin color, but their social standing, financial standing, intelligence level, age, and so many more "labels."

I love to ask McKenna what it feels like to be judged just because she's blonde and people think that all blondes are a certain way (of course, she just looks at me with that blonde blank look--ha!, just kidding!), but it's a great way to show the girls that we should never label anyone. We are all unique individuals who are really the same underneath--whether we're red, yellow, black, white, male, female, rich, poor, Australian, or South African.

The thing I was most excited about McKenna's experience yesterday was that she said she made some good new friends, and that they are learning to trust each other--even though they're different. I could be wrong here, but the main reason any kind of "isms" survive in our culture is that people don't take the opportunity to forge friendships with other people. I cannot love a Hispanic, an African American, a disabled person (heck, even an Auburn fan!) if I'm not open to friendships with them. Because, after all . . . people are people are people are people . . .

So it all comes back around to this . . . Thank goodness for things like blogging because it expands my view and provides me with friends from around the globe! Very, very cool!!!!