Small Steps to Greater Understanding

Understanding one's biases, conditioning and assumptions is arduous, if not impossible when located in the familiar. I recall, that as a young person, differences surrounded me; however, recognition implies a judgment which is fed by the ever expanding maw of otherness. Neighbours were just that. Playmates and friends were just that. They were nice or not so nice. The palette of distinctions somehow, and at some time, exploded into a myriad of tones and hues, adding to its shades shadows of style, augmented by assumptions of worth. Deep rooted distinctions determined attraction, aversion and avoidance.
Here, I am in the midst of what, in Vancouver, would be highly unusual. We tend to construct living places which are hewed by homogeneity to provide a buffer between us and them. In this neighbourhood, relative poverty resides next door to comfort. My initial reaction was wry observation, always seeking the clever line, a convenient tool to avoid more careful thought.
After, just a short time, my glasses are beginning to lose and gain focus. The kids across the road live in circumstances much different than those on either side of me. I notice they play in their own yard and rely upon each other; their interdependence and laughter ringing through my door like the Latin beat of the music throbbing from their mother's radio.
No one phones the police; no one looks askance and no one seems to mind. The fabric of the barrio unfolding.