Difference

2002-10-08 - 5:31 a.m.

So, Gold membership is completely wasted on me, on account of my complete and utter ignorance of how to use these newfangled computer things. I have all these ideas, like a banner-voting-thing where I make two banners and you guys sign my guestbook and I get a whole shwack of emails saying "someone's signed your guestbook!" and then I submit the winning banner to try and direct more and more schelps to my growing collection of people-who've-listed-me-as-a-favourite. Not that you're schleps. Not that I even know what a schlep is.

But, so far the neatest thing about the gold membership is that it was an option to make a backup file, which I think is uber spiffy. I've been wondering how I might go about copying my almost-400 entries (I'm a giant packrat and don't really want to lose the most recorded year of me ever) and I had pretty much settled on copy and paste-ing each entry into some word program. Fun! If this gold thingy does what I think it does, I may not have to spend two hours re-reading drunken entries that should have stayed unread.

But do I regret the purchase?

Not at all. It may be me trying to justify the expenditure when just two months ago Pookie and I were starving, so be warned.

But just now I checked my list of favourites, and a couple had updated, and I read one entry and it jump-started my brain a bit. I enjoy reading you folks, and the random diaries I check on every now and then. It's great to get another perspective on things, or to see how someone else lives. I've learned so much about so many issues that I feel my own personal world is richer for it.

The other night Pookie and I were talking about gender and sexuality, more specifically about bisexuality, and how a friend of ours got married to a guy and in many peoples' eyes suddenly forfeited her sexuality. She is quite a vocal activist about bisexuality, but since she's married, people find it easy to dismiss her pre-married life as a phase. It's not as if she suddenly became straight, it's not as if she doesn't find women attractive...

The greatest thing I think I've gained in the last year and some months is that by moving to Toronto I've exposed myself to many more "types" of people, and I love it.

It amazes me how much variety there is in the world, how foolish it is to assume categories. I already lived in a world so far beyond the "There is only one ideal family," had been taught to love diversity, and now it seems it's everywhere.

In ecology, it's always stressed that diversity is very important. It provides stability to ecosystems, as well as a chance to change. Variations between species and within species mean that a group of life forms are more able to adapt to changes in the environment, are faster to change and grow, give rise to more solutions to new problems. The more variety in an ecosystem, the richer the genetic soil.

Coming at it from the other way, more variety springs from healthier environments. Very few creatures can live within toxic or hazardous environments, but places where there are lots of resources - energy, fuel, space - have a wider variety of species. You can tell the relative health of an ecosystem by the variety and diversity existing within it.

It feels very much like this applies to human diversity. It's as if by accepting difference and providing support and encouraging each other we are promoting our own ecosystem, we're fostering richer soil. Communities that support difference seem stronger to me, groups where a bunch of different individuals working together or just having fun seem more appealing.

I know that I tend to be afraid of change, but I'm very glad to have had this past year, with all of its changes and challenges. I am richer for it, there's more colour in the world than there was, my horizons are wider than they've been.

In a way, its almost like being a kid again: there's so much that's possible, and so much that's wonderful and awe-inspiring that sometimes I can't help but smile uncontrollably.

My, aren't I the annoying Polyanna tonight? Sorry 'bout that. I'll try to be extra cynical tomorrow.

Cheers,

The Magus

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