What is Water?

Introduction to Cultural Diversity

by Rev. C.Michael Woodstock

“To see what is in front of one’s nose requires a constant struggle”

George Orwell

Story of the Fish

One day as a group of young fish were swimming along they encountered an older fish swimming in the opposite direction. Passing by, the older fish greeted them saying “Hello there; how’s the water?” After the younger fish had gone some ways farther one of them piped up, “What the heck is water?”

Photo Courtesy of UnitedYAM

This story is meant to illustrate that, just as fish don’t see water because it is so ubiquitous it is taken for granted, so too are we surrounded and immersed in a context that is typically invisible to us. We live and breathe in a sea of assumptions that operate like default settings in a software program to govern our responses to our environment. We are constantly making choices and responses throughout each day based on these default settings as we navigate our environment.

This is Water

How do we acquire these default settings? From our early childhood upbringing, schooling and socialization and ongoing relationships with family, friends, neighbors and the rules, regulations and values of the community and society in which we live, written and unwritten, explicit or implicit. In these and countless other ways we are getting feedback from our environment about how successfully we are meeting the expectations of our parents, teachers, and others in our community and society.

Another word for this is culture. It is the learned behavior people acquire that makes it easier for them to know what to expect from each other as they live, work, play, worship and engage in countless other human activities together. It is the collective understanding of common sense.

Or as Albert Einstein once famously put it:

“Culture is the collection of prejudices acquired by age eighteen.”

The Blink of an Eye

None of this is good or bad, per se. It is how human beings are wired to quickly make decisions based on information stored in our subconscious (past training) plus minimal new information. In short, we literally pre-judge in order to make rapid decisions. This has given us a distinct evolutionary advantage, AND it get us into trouble as Malcolm Gladwell points out in his book, Blink:

“[Research] suggests that what we think of as free will is largely an illusion: 

Much of the time, we are simply operating on automatic pilot, and the way we think and act – and how well we think and act on the spur of the moment – are a lot more susceptible to outside influences than we realize. 

The answer is that we are not helpless in the face of our first impressions. They may bubble up from the unconscious - from behind a locked door inside of our brain.

But just because something is outside of awareness doesn't mean it's outside of control."

Though our biases are nearly automatic, we have the opportunity to change the patterns that have formed...

... if we can become conscious of the water we have been swimming in.  

COMING UP - Does Unity mean Uniformity?

Next week, we'll continue the series on Cultural Diversity.  The practical spiritual implications of this will be explored in Part II of this series, "Culture, Diversity and Inclusivity."

About the Author

Rev. C. Michael Woodstock is an ordained minister of the United Centers for Spiritual Living and a graduate of the Holmes Institute for Consciousness Studies with a M.A. in Consciousness Studies. He also holds a B.A. in Business Law, and Office Administration from Michigan State University. 

Rev. C. Michael is a cultural diversity trainer and has facilitated trainings both in the corporate world and in CSL. He is currently a member of the CSL Diversity Commission.

"Rev. C." as he is known to those working closely with him, currently lives in Hercules, CA with his wife Robin.