One of my least favorite phrases? “It’s a small world.” It is not a small world. Not in the slightest. Sure, there are funny coincidences that happen. (One of my personal favorites happened to be in college when I, having had a few drinks and thereby thinking that a city-wide coincidence could, in fact be possible, asked my new neighbor “Oh, you’re from Atlanta! Do you know [insert girl's name]?” His reply: “Did Carl put you up to this?” “No,” I said, “I went to high school with her for two years.” Turns out she was his ex-girlfriend and things had not ended well.) But what this story underscores is that these are small circles that we are living in. And there are hundreds and thousands of such circles in the world. Most of us limit ourselves to only a few.

Travel from Istanbul to Bangkok and you’ll find many of the same ingredients available and used– red chilis, cumin, tumeric, and fresh vegetables like eggplant and tomatoes. Sure there are plenty of ingredients that differ, but regardless with many of the same components the two cultures have come up with radically different cuisines, both excellent in their own way. Meat? Dogs are pets, dogs are food, cows are revered, cows are food, pigs are dirty, pigs are food, and the eye of the fish is a delicacy. To me it is utterly astounding that a firm belief about the way things are or should be done can be turned upsidedown in another place. What about art? Contrast the curved heads of the nagas (dragons) in Laos with the intricate patterns of Islamic art. Society? Certain tribes in Laos and China are female dominated and pre-marital sex is practical rather than taboo.

Is it a small world? What about history? For every completely unique place in the world, which are numberless, there’s a history going back generations with its cast of characters, struggles, and ways of doing things. The fact that no place is static exponentially increases the number of different experiences it is possible to have had in this world of ours. And like the differences today, there were hundreds of different problems to solve for which people came up with hundreds of different solutions.

To say the world is small, is, in my opinion, to stay safe. It is to deny that the world is a large and scary place where concepts get challenged and perspectives are shifted. Nothing is stable outside the small circles. To say the world is small is to ignore the fact that our connections with other people are often limited to other people who have had an experience similar to our own. True, people can have more than one circle, which is why it is possible to have a six-degrees-of-separation connection with someone from Botswana. But I’m assuming that the majority of these connections are made by certain individuals who have moved outside of their original circles for jobs, education, adventure or love.

In my opinion, the more circles we have, the better. The better chance we have of understanding ourselves (our own beliefs, fears, and reactions), other people (vital for business and politics), and this crazy huge planet we all call home.

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