by
Ryan Clement
It saddens me to think about the world my son will grow up in during these turbulent times around the globe.
I was communicating with my very good friend, D., today and asked whether we worry ‘more’ (if measurable) about our young today than our parents and guardians did about us? To be clear, I was not questioning the degree and extent of one’s care. That’s been unwavering from the beginning of time. Everything is relative, so the degree of worry or what one was worrying over in the past was different. For example, there was no cyberbullying but there was still bullying etc. When I was younger, you were either told to your face what someone thought about you or you remained oblivious to their thoughts. Today, one can go online, abuse a subject and hide behind the veil of a false name or delete the message after the harm has done. Such can be done by a faceless person, of whom the subject has never met or heard and of whose location or time zone the subject has no knowledge.
Before I had a career at the Bar, I used to travel a lot. I have written about this elsewhere. For me, travelling is an investment in part of my personal growth. Beyond the visual spectacle of new landscapes, immersing myself in different cultures acts as a powerful reminder to confront my own biases that may have evolved through years of media exposure that may not always have aligned with the truth, and learn that “different” does not mean “wrong”—it simply means another way of being. After all, most of what we read and or hear are another person’s perception of how they, themselves, view the world through their own lenses tinted by their own conscious and or unconscious biases.
After all, what is there not to gain from engaging with diverse traditions and histories? What is there not to gain from navigating unfamiliar environments? What is there not to gain or there to fear from sharing a meal or a conversation with locals who have similar or dissimilar complexion to mine that can help bridge the gap between a perception of “us” and “them,” which, ultimately, could aid cross-cultural understanding?
I know that not everyone can do what I am advocating, but with an element of conscious critical thinking, we can still tell ourselves that while our customs vary, our fundamental human emotions are universal. 🕊️
As for my family in Canada 🇨🇦, as was the case with Porto in 2024, Toronto is calling me. You know who you are. See you soon 🙏🏾
Ryan Clement 