Not better or worse, just different

"Alone on a train aimless in wonder
An outdated map crumbled in my pocket
But I didn't care where I was going
They're all different names for the same place.

The coast just appeared when the sea drown the summer
I've no words to share with anyone
The boundaries of language are quietly cursed
All the different names for the same thing.

There are different names for the same things
There are different names for the same things..."

Part of me wants to believe that everything, at its core, is different from everything else. This trip has shown me that everything at is core, is in essence the same. Here are some examples of what I am talking about. So many people want to come here, see something different, experience something new, but when we get right down to it Europe is nothing new. It is simply a different name for the same thing- land. German, Hispanic, Dutch, Bosnian, Hungarian, American, all of these are just different names for the same thing; people. Postmodernism is a new way to label the same movement that began in the 60's; existentialism. Contemporary and traditional are different names for the same thing; worship. The hardest and by far most important lesson I have learned with this has to do with differences in people. Uptight, impatient, laid back, outspoken, quiet, type A, type B, loving, hard headed, selfish, giving; all of these are different names for the same thing-Humanity. All of my gossip, unforgiveness, withholding love, picking on, looking down upon are different names for the same thing; hate. None of us are ever all of these things all of the time, but at some point all of us are some of these things. And these things make us no better or no worse the same as being American makes us no better than being Hispanic because these are, at their core, just different names for people. None of these things are different because they are old or better because they are new. "There is nothing new under the sun. There are only endless repackagings."
I am no better or no worse and I don't know where I get the notion that I might be. I can endlessly repackage myself, my personality and my appearence to the world around me, but it will never make me better than my neighbor. Somewhere along the line we begin to think ourselves superior for hundreds of different reasons. We can call ourselves different things, give ourselves different names, speak in different languages or live in different places, have different opinions and preferences, but we are all the same, no better, no worse, just humans in need of a God.