My creativity advent calendar 2024: Day 2.
Does art help us to appreciate our differences?
A big part of this year has been taken up with people being driven apart by politics, violence and differences of opinion on many things.
When Quincy Jones was 20 years old in 1953, he was part of a big band tour of Europe. The band members were used to being subjected to verbal and physical violence in many towns in America and so it was astonishing to them that Parisians welcomed them with open arms.
Before he left the USA an older band member had made him promise to learn a few words of the language in every country the band played in because, “if you learn the language, that will take you to the food and the music and that’s where you find the soul of a country.”
It didn’t take long for him to realise that the flavours of food and the fundamentals of music are closely related. More than that, travelling gave him a genuine love and respect for differences. While at home, the colour of his skin marked him out as “different” and was a bad thing. He found he had more in common with people on the other side of the world. His race wasn’t a barrier, and it was music and food that made the connection and built friendships.
Seeking out the things that bring us together became a life long habit.
When people who have very different opinions on a specific topic come together to find a solution to an issue in a deliberative process like a Citizens Assembly they are often surprised by how much they have in common.
The sculpture features six sets of reaching arms with hands clasped over a waterway, meant to represent people and cultures coming together over differences.
The six pairs of hands are titled ‘Help’, ‘Love’, ‘Friendship’, ‘Faith’, ‘Wisdom’ and ‘Hope’ to depict six of humanity’s universal values.
I find it quite a shock when someone with whom I have a lot in common reveals they think quite differently to me on something really important. If they think like that, how can we be friends? And yet we are …
So what about those people we dismiss without ever bothering to get to know them, just because they express an opinion with which we disagree? Are we only looking at the differences? Should we be more like Quincy Jones and seek out the things that could bring us together?
