Diversity as a form of richness
Today it is official: the British are leaving the European Union.
It makes me sad.
I can understand that they did not feel comfortable with some of the Union’s rules. I sometimes struggle with them as well.
However, I still deeply believe that unity makes us stronger.
Perhaps it is because I grew up in the 1980s. I clearly remember how we were educated with a sense of European brotherhood and coexistence between different cultures.
And not only with other countries, but also with different regions within Italy.
There, however, regional identity has gradually faded.
Speaking in dialect is often considered a sign of ignorance, while speaking standard Italian is valued as a sign of culture.
To me, this still feels like a cultural loss — like cooking pasta without salt.
In contrast, Catalonia has helped me rediscover the value of roots and a living culture that protects and nourishes its identity and cultural diversity.
It is unfortunate that globalization often tends to standardize differences instead of strengthening them.
Cultural diversity is not a problem: it is a form of richness that expands the way we see the world.
Cultural stereotypes and inherited prejudices
Criticizing other cultures in order to make our own appear more valuable is a trap — a contagious kind of nonsense.
And in this contagion we end up criticizing even our own culture, as if we were competing to see who has the best one.
An absurd game that distances us from others and from ourselves.
Interestingly, the same pattern repeats itself in almost every country.
The north often reproaches the south for being inefficient.
The south accuses the north of being rigid and cold.
And this dynamic is reproduced on a smaller scale within each country.
In the end, we keep reinforcing cultural stereotypes and inherited prejudices that have very little to do with reality.
They are simplified ideas that we continue repeating without questioning them.
Belonging and identity
Loyalty to what is ours has an instinctive component.
It becomes a division between “us” and “the others,” the “barbarians.”
But the truth is that, at some point in history, we have all been the others.
We have all been — and still are — barbarians.
And perhaps that is where an important clue lies.
Perhaps the challenge is to learn to live together among different barbarians, with different colors, accents and flavors.
To learn how to live with difference without turning it into a threat.
Because diversity does not have to separate us — it can also enrich us and bring us closer together.
Reconnecting with your singularity
In many therapeutic processes, this question also appears:
how can we live with difference, both outside and inside ourselves?
Sometimes we reject parts of ourselves out of fear of not fitting in — just as we reject what is different in others.
Gestalt Therapy invites us to recognize and reconcile these internal and external differences.
To discover that our singularity is not a problem, but a source of richness.
If you would like to reconnect with your uniqueness and build relationships that are more free and respectful with the people around you,
Gestalt therapy sessions may help you take that step.
Thank you for being here.
Have a wonderful weekend.
