By Lynne Cory

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What if it is a sign of respect to look you in the eye when I am speaking with you? What if it is a sign of respect to not look you in the eye when we are speaking? What if it is a sign of friendship to shake your hand when I greet you? What if my culture disapproves of shaking hands? What if I am casually sitting on the floor? What if it is a sign of disrespect to show the sole of my foot to you? What if I gobble up all the delicious food on my plate trying to show how much I enjoyed the meal but my host is embarrassed that he did not feed me enough because that is what an empty plate means to his culture?

What if in this great big world, we are insulting and hurting the feelings of each other by our innocent lack of knowledge of the different cultures and traditions? What if instead of judging, we gave others the benefit of the doubt that they were doing their best with what they knew, as was I?