I'm not an environmentalist. Or an ecologist. Just a ordinary average guy. I don't write blogs for money. Or run around with a fast crowd. But I do enjoy association with some fine people.

Last Monday I traveled to Boulder, Colorado. This was purely a business trip. And I met some interesting and good people. One person, I'll refer to him as Scott, was of particular interest. He sat in on 3 1/2 hours of meetings. He listened most of the time. He enthusiastically entered the conversation when he could contribute.

On the way to lunch Scott filled me in on much of the local flavor. Boulder is a town rich in cultural flavor and diversity. Scott also identified himself as "an environmentalist who is pro-nuclear." I identified myself as a non-environmentalist who is pro-conservation.

I bet that if Scott and I talked for a few hours we would discover that both of us look at the world through much the same filter. Neither of us is too radical. We could possibly go on a week-long outdoor adventure and enjoy the wilderness, and, dare I say it, enjoy each other. What a wonderful world we live in.

I believe that even though we identify ourselves differently, we share many of the same values. Once an ethics professor taught me that most of us, as humans, share similar beliefs and values about 95% of the time. We all agree that stealing and old woman's purse is wrong, for example. And yet we get all worked up about the 5% differences of ideas that we don't share.

Shouldn't we try to understand each other? And shouldn't we enjoy the differences? I hope to have found a friend in Scott. And I hope that he doesn't disrespect me because I'm a bit different from him........
10:39:52 PM    comment []