Building Something

Many years ago I worked for a major university. I remained there 17 years. During that time I observed people getting along with others quite different from themselves. Not always a smooth transaction, but differences caused constructive change. Among them were these:

• Cultural difference created conscious awareness of others
• We learned that ‘different’ did not separate us
• Ideas were shared across lines of ethnicity, gender, nationality
• Academic disciplines helped inform very different academic areas of thought
• Cross discipline thinking created remarkably different ideas, awareness
• Critiquing common issues exposed new ways of seeing the issues
• Multiple perspectives provided better understanding of the issue
• Ideas to solve problems expanded from there
• Experimenting with applications to issues emerged
• Collaborations sprang forth naturally; a team was born
• What developed as possible moved from dream to reality

This process was played out many times. The results were new materials and products, new academic disciplines to study, and extraordinary collaborations. Some of the latter produced revolutionary products and medical protocols such as substitutes for blood, fake bone replacements (some grew!), artificial body parts including partial organs.

Discovery is not always about a physical thing. Or inventing a new material. Or a new chemical. Or even new processes of using these new ‘things’.

The biggest discoveries are about self. Who we are. Who someone else is. How we get along. How we work together. How we discover in team. How we synthesize new things or processes from disparate items. How we make things better for others because we left self behind and immersed our creativity with others.

That’s a discovery! Its impact is enormous because it sweeps people along a path of creativity which motivates and replicates even more discovery.

This human dimension of social life is a core human ability. It is a positive.

Contrast that with the noise we encounter daily. Often that is confrontational, opinionated, fractious. It separates. It criticizes and tears down. It mongers fear and terror. And hate. It seeks attention. It is focused on ‘me’. It is negative.

It is easy, too. Far easier to knock something than support it or build it. Negative is a lazy man’s calling.

The world is not perfect. Nor is our nation. But we do have enormous positives to work with. That is positive. The challenges call for effort. There is hard work to do if we want to accomplish something. Building something is good.

So let’s get on with our work. Together.

November 5, 2011