The same but different

On Friday, my friend Joanne drove down from Los Angeles to spend the day with me. (To know who Joanne is, go back to my entries "Hong Kong in 40 hours" in December 07, and "Summer in January" in January 08). The weather was hot and beautiful and we had such a great day.
I love spending time with Joanne and talking with her. You always surround yourself with like minded people. People who tend to view the world and life in general, the same way you do (or close to it). At first, Joanne would not be one of those persons. We have different views on a lot of things; religion, politics, life... What is great though is that she is not closed minded and is able to have a conversation and listen to your arguments and share her point of view with you. Maybe it is just the two of us together. We are able to do that in a non threatening way. We are just trying to understand why the other thinks that way. I do not try to convince her that I am right and vice versa. It is an exchange. We go back an forth with points and counterpoints. Sometimes it gets clear why we think a certain way about something, sometimes we get stumped. And that is okay. I would give a good argument and she would say, "Okay, I see why you say that. Let me think about it and I will get back to you". And we go on with our conversation. We might or might not come back to that same point, but if we do because she has more questions or she has more insight on the topic, then there we go again. And I might realize that her argument is completely valid. That does not necessarily means that I am changing my point of view on a specific issue, but it helps me understand why she would see things a different way. It gives both of us an insight on the thinking process of the other person. I think that the more we talk, the more we realize how similar we are. Our values and the way we live our lives might be different, but once you look past the surface and do that without judgement, we actually are quite alike....