Away in London during Thanksgiving, there was no hint of the most celebrated holiday in the US. No Turkey dinner! No family get together! Not even a holiday! People went about their business as usual. No black Friday! It was a gentle reminder that this is a world in which we, the billions, care about a vast number of things, many of which are not common with most others on the planet.

Hanging about in London was a lesson in stepping out of one’s small universe of friends, acquaintances, and comforting routines and experience how others live, what they care about, what they believe in, and how odd it is that while we are similar in many respects, we couldn’t be more different in many others.

It struck me that even in the much smaller world in which we live, the connecting forces of the internet haven’t really bridged so many of the differences between us. Beliefs and traditions balk at crossing geographical boundaries. Which is why even in this much smaller world, London is as separate and distinct from New York as it ever was. We may know a lot more about what our fellow humans in Siberia may be up to, but that doesn’t mean we understand why.