I've always liked variety. For that reason, I will
generally not have the same meals for breakfast or dinner two days in a row.
You'll remember that there was a time when you have any color you
wanted on your model T- as long as you wanted it black
During the 1950's, you had a wide variety of colors to choose from,
in some cases as many as 20, and some of those were two tones.
In the 1970's, the number of choices were fewer, but the color
choices were more vibrant, and included colors like Plum Crazy, Lemon Twist,
and Vitamin C Orange.
Today, color choices are more limited, and are largely black, white, and silver, with a smatter of blue and red variations.
Variety also makes society more interesting,
For the second day in a row, I am monitoring an ELD (English
language learner) class. Although all of today's classes have Spanish as
their first language, yesterday’s was much more diverse.
I took as quick survey of first languages, and this is what I found:
1 student spoke Swahili
6 spoke Spanish
5 spoke Arabic
1 spoke French
I spoke Farci
2 spoke Turkmen
1 spoke Kinyarwanda (which is spoken in Kenya)
There are people in society today who want to de-emphasize our
differences. They call it eliminating DEI, and it is an absolutely stupid idea.
Fortunately, there are some corporations and universities that are resisting.
So far, companies like Costco have managed to avoid any penalties, but numerous
colleges and universities have been threatened with funding cuts. The last time
I checked, freedom of speech was still guaranteed by the first amendment.
There are also people who want to make English our official language, but
I have already explained why that does not make any sense either.
https://tohell-andback.blogspot.com/2018/09/should-english-be-americas-official.html
I admire people like Pete Buttigieg, who speaks 7 languages. Technically,
that makes him a polyglot. The pope also speaks 7 (Spanish, Italian, English,
Latin, Portuguese, and German)
I have studied 6 languages, but can only carry on conversations in
English. That's actually one more than Donald Trump, who can't even carry a
conversation in English that makes any sense at all.
Variety is also one of the reasons why I continue to teach well past
normal retirement ages. As a general rule, I do not know where I will be
teaching for the day until after breakfast. In addition, after I take
attendance, I have plenty of time to read books - and I get paid well for doing
just that - which is why I read 74 books last year.
Our society is gradually becoming a place where minorities will be the
majority – and that brings a smile to my face.
