But I'd like to bring the mood down just a moment, if I could. There's a somewhat weighty topic that has been in my thoughts for a bit now, so I thought I'd share. You know, preachin, to the choir or otherwise, really aint my bag. I'm a taoist -- you really don't get much farther from your own tao than trying to create someone else's. Or at least, that's where my path has taken me so far.

Anyway, what I wanted to talk about -- and you'll forgive me, but I'll admit at the start I'm not sure I'll have any sort of interesting point about this in the end -- but the topic is ... well, default thinking. I'm also a psych major, and one of the concepts I learned just this last semester (people always want to show off new knowledge, right?) was "heuristic thinking". If I'm recalling correctly, this is processing that goes on automatically. In a sense, mental shortcuts that we use so that we're not baffled every time we approach an unfamiliar microwave, for instance.

Another would be "schemas". And schemas would be the operative paradigm any of us might have for a particular idea, concept, or subject. For instance, we all have a schema for "solar system", we all have a schema for "chocolate", "socialism", "dandruff" and so on and so on.

A schema, ultimately, is just a pattern. If you combine heuristic thinking with schemas -- you have the computer that is the human mind, accessing a million experiences and memories, a database spanning a lifetime, so fast none of us could ever perceive it happening. For instance, suddenly recognizing an unexpected familiar face in a crowd ... like an ex, maybe. Or hearing a certain song on the radio, or driving through your old neighborhood again ... even just the instantaneous decision that you're attracted to someone. If you think about it, more than likely the very first moment you realized you were into someone, it was a pretty powerful moment.

Because in that moment, a million bits processing has gone into determining: No need to think, here. This person is definitely mouthwatering by our standards.

But really, all that not to talk about attractiveness or anything specifically, but only as an example. The specific point is that this same lightning-fast process is what determines how we initially respond to everything in our world -- including race.

So yeah, not intending at all to preach, but something I've been noticing lately is a tendency in white people -- at least, in American white people, which would be most of the kind I know -- to claim anything that is general as their own, and to assign only specific distinctions to other races.

Or another way of putting it, perhaps more clearly -- we'll assume you're white, until you give us reason to suspect otherwise. And by suspect otherwise ... well, I suspect I'd have to say we mean that you somehow trigger in my mind a schema that says, "Hey, non-white person here..." At which point, hopefully, I will then have a different schema for you.

Bah. I'm losing my own point here. But where I'll go: While in the Western world white remain the majority of the population ... is it really news to anyone that there's many other races, too? And that the individuality and uniqueness of the human experience applies to each and every one, in every creed, color, class, sex, and orientation.

Not that I'm saying having an idea of what anyone might be like is a horrible thing by any means -- this kind of processing is completely necessary and ultimately positive... we wouldn't get very much done if every single thing we encountered every single day required our full attention and mental power.

Still at the same time -- to my mind, if you really want to get the most out of your world, while there are all sorts of concepts and processes and assorted other things for you to learn, most of it will really only require your full attention the first (or first few) times that you encounter them. And maybe occassionally for maintenance. Like brushing up for a test.

But. If you're dealing with a human being? Okay, consider: I'm sure all of us can think of someone who has known us for a very long time, yet who does not really know us at all? Pretty much everybody has somebody (hopefully not a lot of somebodies) like that in their family. Because their image of you hasn't changed in the last 10-20 years, and it wasn't all that accurate even then.

So not only must our interaction with our known and loved ones take the lion's share of our attention if we wish to really know them -- but the same is true for any person we meet new, about whom truthfully we can say we know almost completely nothing.

Whatever your background and identity and such -- whatever your particular culture -- consider for a second, how many other human beings are on the planet at this moment. And consider that each and every one of them has a completely unique story.

It's a little tricky, admittedly -- because sometimes, even if you really are paying attention -- some people's stories just may never seem all too interesting.

But, I suppose that's where compatibility comes in. They say that opposites attract, but according to research that's not really the case. By and large, what we tend to relate to, enjoy, and feel most comfortable with tends to be what is most familiar. Which really only seems logical, if you think about it. To use another cliche, "Birds of a feather flock together."

So -- I suppose, it comes down to how adventurous you really want to be in your life. Or how easily amused you may be. It is the simplest thing in the world, to see the world from the perspective we are most familiar with, and to therefore assign each other person's identity according to that perspective.

It's the simplest thing, but ... I dunno. I'm a pretty lazy guy in general, so I don't suppose I could criticize it on those terms. So in the end, my point will be like the lame science/math teacher from junior high, who got fed up with the schenanigans of the kids and simply declared, "You know, in the end you're only cheating yourself."

I mean, yeah -- when you're 11-13, what do you really have dominating your time, besides hormonal changes and general social awkwardness? You're forced to be at school anyway, you may as well learn something.

And I'm seeing life the same way. We all have to live life anyway. So let's try to assume as little about one another as possible, shall we? Or in the least, acknowledge that anything that has not truly been verified is no more than an assumption?

In perhaps more practical terms, what do I mean? That just as in science you would realize that a hypothesis is only that until proven otherwise, and so on to Laws, so should we pay such attention to how we interact with one another.

Why? Well, for one it allows the greatest potential for each of us to understand and be understood. And as a result of that, it has the potential of allowing many of us to come to understand life from perspectives completely different from our own.

Or, as Ani put it, "I know there is strength in the differences between us. And I know there is comfort, where we overlap."

So ya, that's about it. Happy Monday one and all. And I'll tell you what -- I won't assume you're any particular race until I have some significant evidence on which to base it ... and, you do the same for me.

(Next time on passing strange: What do you feel is the most salient detail to your identity? Race? Sex? Orientation? And whatever it is -- wouldn't it be easier if you didn't have to worry about it so much?)

So that's it, I'm done. Have fun, now.

/self-righteousness