Get Out Of Here

Just finished listening to a fascinating episode of This American Life, entitled "Rest Stop."   The show sent 9 reporters to spend two days at a highway rest stop in upstate New York.  I realize that this concept sounds horribly exciting and probably a little too stimulating for a radio program, but it was genuinely an interesting episode that, among other things, highlighted the importance of just getting away.  One of the people they interviewed was a young woman who was visiting a highway rest stop for the first time in her life -- she had never left West Virginia.  Getting out of our routine, our day-to-day, our cultural comfort zones, is vitally important, both to developing an appreciation and respect for our differences, but to understanding that, despite all of our differences, we are all just people.  This is true whether you cross the street into another community, or if you cross the ocean to another society.