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This could be the most challenging of the #AtoZChallenge. I wanted to go with the easy, xylophone, or x-ray, but couldn’t think of enough to fill a sentence much less a small blog post. So I went to my online dictionary and ran across words I knew but needed a refresher. So I exited the dictionary with a minor idea. Let’s see if it works.

Are you a xenophile or a xenophobe? The roots of the words are easy in this case. xeno=people especially foreign or exotic. Phile=lover of. Phobe=afraid of. A lot of us don’t think about it much. We tend to think we like everyone.

That would be true for me. I like to think I like all people. But throw me into a room with more than two people I don’t know and I go into a panic with sweats and shakes. One on one, I am fascinated by all people and their stories. If I get to know them well enough I can handle them in a bigger group of folks I know.

Parties? Church? Can’t handle the crowds at all. Even the nicest of groups like the Unitarian Universalists, probably the least judgmental of church groups I’ve ever been in, too many and I am a basket case looking for the nearest exit. (See what I did there?)

I get my xenophile fix by reading about people from other places and walks of life. I think everything you read that stretches your understanding reduces the possible cases of xenophobia.

But Hey! I learned to play the xylophone before I learned the piano. It had many colored keys like my first little piano. I was and am a little upset that adult pianos are black and white. Mine is pretty and I love rooms of black and white, I would love a room of those colors and a black baby grand, with the tiled look going into the indoor pool of the same colors. Now that is seXy! But red and yellow black and white and brown and purple, blue and green, this started out a song but the dream of this piano/xylophone overreached! Oh, but the piano room with the wood as the main feature could use a glockenspiel! Ooh! Xylophone vs glockenspiel! There’s a topic for another day!

Notice the above paragraph has no people? Yeah, for a few seconds there I was not nervous. As much as I love people and want them in my life there are times that I could X them out and bury myself in my music or art or writing, reading–ah but sooner or later I crave social interaction. I long for long talks and learning others’ stories. Suck it up, shake and perspire, enjoy the Xeno!

Where are you on the Xeno charts?

Nearly finished with this fun #AtoZChallenge!