Not a poem but a footnote

"The Human Other"

We must, in short,

descend into detail,

past the misleading tags,

past the metaphysical types,

past the empty similarities

to grasp firmly the essential character

of not only the various cultures

but the various sorts of individuals

within each culture,

if we wish

to encounter humanity

face to face."

I came across this as footnote 210 on page 139, in Graham Buxton's excellent Creation, The Trinity and Pastoral Ministry. Imaging the Perichoretic God. The quote is from Clifford Geertz the sociologist, in his book The Interpretation of Cultures. Typed like that it reads more as a poem than a footnote.

The photo can be found here on a site that is a marvellous celebration of culture, difference and otherness and the diverse richness of the varied beauty of the human face and the human family. The expression "face to face", happily a non-jargon description of cultural encounter, has so much potential for understanding, compassion, celebration and the shared enjoyment of God's creation.