We Are All Part Of One Human Family

Have you heard the one about the Chinese godfather? He made them an offer they couldn’t understand.       Corrado “Uncle Junior” Soprano

Corrado Soprano, lovingly known as Uncle Junior,  was an entrepreneur active in the gaming and personal finance industries. His crude but timely koan demonstrates how difficult it can be to communicate with those from other cultures and develop relationships based on trust and mutual respect. As technology helps to shrink the distance between the residents of the global village, learning to communicate and get along will be essential if  we and the planet are to survive.  

His Holiness the 14th Dalai Lama once observed, “Whether we like it or not, we have all been born on this earth as part of one great human family.” One way to acknowledge this familial connection and enhance our interaction with individuals and groups from places such as Colombia, Mexico, Nigeria, Jamaica, Russia, Albania and Hong Kong is to learn another language.

Mastering a few simple phrases, such as ‘Where’s the rest?” or “ Get in the trunk.” can go a long way toward building bridges of understanding. Truly, as Maya Angelou once said, “ We are more alike, my friends, than we are unalike.”

Wiseguy Wisdom is a guide to personal growth based on books, movies and government tapes.