Love Month – February 29

I love differences.

It’s Leap Day, something we only get to experience every four years. It’s different, it’s unusual, and seems a bit special. A bonus day, especially for this year.

I love the unusual, the quirky, the different, the interesting. One of the things I look for when I travel are the little things we do differently.

In some places the males and females greet each other with hugs and kisses and in others that would be too intimate. You’re expected to bring gifts when you visit in some cultures, not bring them in others, and refuse gifts for a certain number of times before accepting them in others. In some countries you tip a percentage, in others nothing, and in others you just leave a few bits of odd change. Ketchup is put on fries in the US, mayonnaise in Belgium, poutine in Canada and malt vinegar in the UK.

These travel differences are always one of the things I try to remember to research when I travel so I don’t offend. I also want to be open to experiencing the culture and not be visibly offended myself to something that is their norm.

I love differences in people, too. Yes, I like people who enjoy the things I enjoy, but I also love to celebrate our differences. How boring if we were all alike.

The the reason that I originally named my blog “In the Box, Out of the Box” – was because I hate peoples making assumptions of who I am based on their interpretation of certain labels that seem to define me. I, like you, am not like all the others. We are different, yet in other ways the same.

On this Leap Day I hope we open our minds to the possibilities that the unusual and the unique may be what makes us special. Do we really want Leap Day to be just like the others? No, I don’t think so.

I love differences because it allows more color in a world we try to make routine and homogeneous. Vive la différence!

“You don’t get harmony when everybody sings the same note.” – Doug Floyd