Friction

When spending all my time with people who are just like me, I can get too comfortable, too dependent on the familiar, too unaware of big blind spots in my view of life.  I can start making statements without realizing how such words might sound to someone not like me.  I can focus energy on something, not even realizing that others would find making such an effort a luxury. 

But when I also spend time with people who aren't just like me - whose situations aren't like mine, whose personalities aren't like mine, whose goals aren't like mine - there is friction.

And it is good.

Suddenly, I am not measuring myself against my peers.  I am seeing who I am despite what category I fall into.  I am seeing the graces in my life, those undeserved favors that I have slid into taking for granted.  I am seeing my rough edges, the need for humility.  I am seeing that there is more to this life than what I thought was "normal".

Sometimes, I would rather just stay solely in the comfortable familiar.  Friction turns up the heat.

But I didn't want to live a tepid life, anyway.