Difference

An international airport. An insane number of people at any given
point of time. In most circumstances no one next to you is from the
same country as you. All these people. Different faces, different
thoughts, different experiences. What makes them dress a certain way?
What dictates their hairstyle? Which magazine inspired their jewelry?

So much difference at this gate of a delayed flight to The United Arab
Emirates. But why if we're all so different, is everyone in a hurry?
Who do they have to meet? Why did they travel? Why are they here?

Most everyone dresses in shirts, pants, skirts, jackets and slacks. I
wonder if this is because everyday the airport brings us closer
together- this coexistence of a fragment of each part of the world in
one large room, if even for a few hours in a day. The similar clothes
on different skin makes me wonder more...enticing me to find out the
culture and experience behind each checked shirt, plaid skirt and
black jacket. To explore the mystery behind their language. Will they
tell me all if I knew it? Why is everyone so determinedly looking at a
book, or the ceiling, or their shoes, when there's so much to know?

Are we all just looking for similarity- something we can relate to?
Maybe the similar shirts, pants, skirts, jackets and slacks make it
harder to find similarity. But what is it about difference that scares
us so much? What is it about difference that makes conversation so
hard, when really, the difference is what makes it so easy to ask a
question?

~ by Aruna