Can “Encounter” Fundamentally Transform How We See and
Interact with “The Other”?

Act I — How Our Culture and the Culture of the “Other” Came to be

1. Many cultures may look strange to us,
but not to the “others”.
And our culture may look strange to the “others”
but not to us.
That simple fact is the beginning of understanding.

2. We may feel that our culture is simply
the way things have been, are, and ought to be.
The “others” likely feel the same way
about their culture.

3. We and the “others” were not born
with the rules of our cultures;
we learned them
from parents and elders,
teachers, and peers,
and media.

4. In both cultures
we and the “others” absorbed
the do’s and don’ts of our cultures –
appropriate and inappropriate emotionality,
ways of speaking,
clothing,
interacting with elders and
people of different sexes,
and much more.
We were taught our culture’s beliefs and values,
rites and rituals,
ways of solving problems,
seeking justice,
expressing joy, or sadness, or grief,
and much more.