Diversity At Its Best!
I was recently tasked with writing my quarterly column for an Australian online publication, Grandparents Day Magazine, with that issue’s New Year’s theme being: JUNGLE. The first thought that came to my mind regarding that theme was diversity.
The Merriam-Webster Dictionary defines diversity as: The quality or condition of having or being composed of differing elements.
That being the case, a jungle certainly encompasses that definition. Although the jungle is known to be without much variation in seasons – it is humid and hot for most of the year – it contains a wide variety of elements. One could spend a lifetime recording them and not compile a comprehensive list of all that exists there.
One site in my online research noted that there are nearly 40,000 plant species, 1,300 bird species, 3,000 types of fish, 427 species of mammals, and approximately 2.5 million insects.
OH MY GOODNESS! As I said in my post’s title, Diversity At Its Best!
The jungle’s diversity, and that which exists all around us where we live and breathe, makes me happy.
We all have examples of diversity in our human experience. My goodness, my neighborhood in my Washington state town is comprised of homes of varying sizes, differing ages of residents, and, most certainly, a diverse ethnic composition that highlights what living is all about.
And is it necessary to point out that the residents of every country in the world have differing religious and political leanings? At least in the United States where I live, divisions currently exist that have never been wider in my lifetime, and I have lived on this earth 72 years thus far. That division does not make me happy.
I would like to use the jungles of the world as a healthy example of diversity, and although the jungle can also be characterized as a scary place to be …lions and tigers and bears, oh my! … it is still a natural example of diversity at its best, from which perhaps all of us in the world could learn a lesson or two.
May it be so.
Living: the ultimate team sport 