I found it interesting when the kids were beginning to learn to read, that there's such an emphasis on noticing differences. On the one hand it makes sense that if you want to learn to read and discriminate between letters and symbols you need to learn to see the difference between an L and an I or a P and an R.
But if we translate that to the rest of life and we're always focusing on what's different about the people around us instead of what we have in common with them, it seems like we'd only get half of the story we're trying to read.
(c) 2005 Margie Hillenbrand
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The analogy still works, I think, depending on one's understanding of language. Learning to read is more than merely discriminating between similar symbols. It involves an understanding of the use of words as they are put together in sentences and some knowledge of similarity in tone, sound, meaning, &c. An understanding of nuanced language could translate into an understanding of life as nuanced - seeing different things expressed similarly, or seeing commonalities lived out in very different ways.
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