In my struggle to process all that has happened this past weekend, I would like to add my thoughts to Christine Ng's pertinent and wonderful Oct. 17 article, "Students find 'Common Ground.'"
Common Ground: what it means to not just look, but see past the deeply rooted categorizations and stratifications of our world and its people.
Hippy-dippy, right? Hippy-dippy. Dismissed. You're ready to chuck me in the let's-be-really-theoretical-and-have-great-moral-visions loony bin. And honestly, sometimes, I am too understanding, and respecting individuality is not, and never will be, easy. Not even close. I'm not the biggest fan of intangibles, either, especially frustrating ones like these: relieve the world, Duke, of its oppressions by seeing everyone as we see ourselves--humans with emotions, vulnerabilities, immense strengths and weaknesses. Now go and do what?
So this is another part of Common Ground that leaves me bewildered, scared. Where does it start? Where does it end?
After my experience, here's some of what I have to share with the Duke community, hoping that I don't sound preachy (because that certainly isn't what it's about): it has started. It continues with my effort, your effort, to take each person--each brilliant, fascinating, beautiful person (indeed, Duke is inundated with them) one by one.
Meaning, that girl in chemistry class who seems cool but isn't really in your circle of friends: she is cool. You can get to know her. You can say hi to her when you pass her on the quad.
It continues with the realization that the benefits of such an effort are personal and worldly by way of this personal effect. As for the end: When it's here, we'll know it.
Talya Lieberman
Trinity '07
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