The fact that distinctly insular groups of people of varying heritage, culture, belief or language have a hard time getting along with each for the long term when they have some shared space and limited intercourse is a historical and geographic problem to be dealt with by those who would ameliorate the snowballing grievances that occasionally lead to outrages and massacres between those groups. Anyone denying the above component in the ongoing bloody conflicts in Syria, Iraq, Burma and perhaps a dozen other places in the world today would be missing a vital component toward understanding those conflicts and their potential cures.

One prophylactic of some utility to the danger of such often unforeseen outbursts of violence might be the building of bridges via individuals’ personal communication and caring that extend beyond both the commercial and merely polite.

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This world we live in is a glorious place, and in the modern era the range and quantity of pleasures available to most of us far surpass anything available to even our recent ancestors (even if some of our troubles, such as widespread overcrowding, hunger and loss of meaning surpass some of what our adult ancestors had to endure). One such pleasures is the ability for anyone with bus fare or an internet connection to connect with people and members of communities whom he or she would otherwise never interact with on a personal and deeply honest level. Regardless of any of the material or safety benefits that might ensue from such interactions there are the pure unadulterated benefits of friendship, the broadening of one’s mind and senses, and the pleasure of encountering the hitherto exotic.

From my own limited experience it would appear to me that most people in the world, regardless of how fundamentally insular a community they hail from, sincerely enjoy their interactions with a sincerely interested and personable visitor from a differing community no matter how wide the gap between their respective upbringings, beliefs, cultures and ways of life.

As tautologically simple and trite as it is to say: People are people. And there’s nothing better than that.