In Many Ways, Constancy Is

Orthodox Judaism Is A Thicket Of Detailed Injunctions, Biblical Commandments Elaborated During Centuries Of Prohibited Proselytizing, Functioning To Limit Interaction With Outsiders. At The Opposite Extreme, Islam, Still The Most Rapidly Expanding Of Faiths, Demands Little Immediate Knowledge From Those Who Would Convert. The Convert Is Permitted To Enter And Then To Learn By Participation, Although There Are Plenty Of Detailed Regulations And Abstruse Theological Ideas To Be Pursued Later, And The Regulations Do Effectively Separate Believers From Nonbelievers.

In Many Ways, Constancy Is An Illusion. After All, Our Ancestors Were Immigrants, Many Of Them Moving On Every Few Years; Today We Are Migrants In Time. Unless Teachers Can Hold Up A Model Of Lifelong Learning And Adaptation, Graduates Are Likely To Find Themselves Trapped Into Obsolescence As The World Changes Around Them. Of Any Stopping Place In Life, It Is Good To Ask Whether It Will Be A Good Place From Which To Go On As Well As A Good Place To Remain.

Insight, I Believe, Refers To The Depth Of Understanding That Comes By Setting Experiences, Yours And Mine, Familiar And Exotic, New And Old, Side By Side, Learning By Letting Them Speak To One Another.

We Do Not Need To Understand Other People And Their Customs Fully To Interact With Them And Learn In The Process; It Is Making The Effort To Interact Without Knowing All The Rules, Improvising Certain Situations, Which Allows Us To Grow.

What Would It Be Like To Have Not Only Color Vision But Culture Vision, The Ability To See The Multiple Worlds Of Others.