What "Book" Are You?

Sadly, our world feels heavy with anger right now. If you peel everything back, the common denominator of this anger seems to be prejudice and stereotyping created by misunderstanding and division amongst people.

Humans are very quick to judge about everything, be it skin color, level of education, country of origin, personal choice, etc. Too often that judgment is based solely on the "cover of the book" without even reading or understanding what is inside.

I just recently became aware of "The Human Library," a project that is active in 50 countries. Started in Denmark in 2000, they host events where readers can borrow human beings serving as open books and have conversations they would not normally have access to.

Every human book from their bookshelf, represents a group in society that is often subjected to prejudice, stigmatization or discrimination because of their lifestyle, diagnosis, belief, disability, social status, ethnic origin etc. Each book has a title - "refugee," "transgender," "person of color," "Jewish," "anti-vaxxer" etc. By listening to their 30-minute story, it becomes obvious that you should not judge a book by its cover.

Let's face it, we all are at least one kind of "book" based on how we have been raised, prejudiced, stigmatized or discriminated against in society. Three of my books are "Woman," "Outspoken," and "Old."

We have the tendency to stay away from those who look/talk/act different than us, immediately thinking we could never have anything in common. Yet by taking the time to simply talk and understand, we may find out that we are all just ordinary people with a lot in common despite our differences.

This Week's Focus:

This week, make it a point not to judge "human books" by their cover. Chat with someone that looks/talks/acts differently than you, and you may see that we are all just ordinary people!