As a world traveler for nearly all of my adult life, I have one fundamental thought about humanity that occurs to me over and over. It’s about human differences, and human similarities.

Most people, when traveling, focus on the differences between human cultures. The food tastes different. The language sounds different. The smells are different. The attire looks strange. Facial expressions get confusing. All of these sensory cues telling you that you’re in a foreign land. 

Some places require you to drive on the “other” side of the street. This can be really disorienting at first. How dare they! Some countries use different symbols on traffic signs that can be confusing. What a difference! (The exclamations are for sarcastic effect, in case it wasn’t obvious.)

All of these visceral sensory differences, signaling to us that we’re in foreign territory. They bring about intrigue and excitement. They bring about discomfort, requiring us to adapt. They’re instantly noticeable.

Yes, human differences abound, on the surface.

But something I learned long ago – when I first started setting foot on foreign lands – is to focus on our similarities. Our collective human similarities.

Despite our differences, for nearly all human experiences – no matter which country, which race, which language, which creed, which religion, which time & place – we’re all basically just carbon copies of each other. 

We all sleep every night and try for seven or eight hours. 

We all eat about three meals a day. 

We all need to do a little exercise or take a walk everyday.

We all need to be educated to read and write, so we can communicate and learn.

We all fall into habits and routines, both good and bad.

We’ve all been harmed by another person unnecessarily.

We all get frustrated when we screw something up that we wanted to get right.

We all share the broad spectrum of emotions from love to hate, and everything in between.

We’re all carrying on lessons, wisdom, and genetics from our lineage. This is true whether we accept it or not. It’s built into the human system.

And, we all understand what it’s like to be part of a family. (Even if someone doesn’t have kids, everyone at least has their parents and often siblings, colleagues and friends – other humans nearby that make up someone’s so-called village. We’re all part of the human family, regardless of the composition of one’s immediate nuclear family.) This is a really important similarity because it teaches us how to relate to one another. It’s the connective tissue of common human experience.

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Our similarities are less sensory than our differences – they’re right there in front of us but less obvious. Our differences are more vivid so they get the lion’s share of our attention.

But our similarities run deep. They’re about a shared intuition. A collective understanding. How energy flows. Frequencies. Out of body stuff. 

Our similarities answer questions that our differences stumble on. 

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Us humans, we’re stuck together. There’s no divorcing out of the human family. 

Our differences are mild compared to our similarities but they get disproportionate attention. It’s really just our sensory apparatus over-weighing what’s immediately in front of us. This is an observable error and therefore possible to correct.

If we all learn to focus more on our similarities, the human experience will improve. We’ll be more civilized. We’ll build cooler stuff. We’ll fight less. It’ll be better.

So the next time you set foot on a foreign land – or even if you’re out walking your dog and there’s a new neighbor who looks “different” – try to tone down your sensory reaction to all of the differences. Let them flow right past you. Then look someone “different” in the eye, and enjoy the similarities.