Divarication

"action or process of spreading apart" Merriam Webster Online

In the beginning, we were all little babies. Then, we grew up and had different interests. Then, after high school, we diverged further into different fields of study or work or perhaps a gap year. But, in short, we found our strengths and followed them. So?

"You know, the thing with my program is that, once you get in, you're just in another world and you don't know anything outside of your program," my old high school acquaintance, with whom I interact amicably with very infrequently, said to me, as she stared confoundedly at a crossword puzzle. The strange thing is that I've heard this particular comment from several people already. Once is an accident, twice is a coincidence, and three times is a conspiracy. Well, "several" is more than three, so this is a downright, underground cabal that's sweeping across universities.

No matter who says it and what programs they're in, be it math or engineering or science or music, it's always the same story. They claim that in their program, there's so much work that they don't have time to be in touch with the rest of the world. The music student claims that any time not spent practicing is wasted. The math student claims that 10 hour assignments are reasons not to know who Condoleeza Rice is. The biology student claims it's perfectly normal for her not to that Dickens and Bronte are classics and that a frog is an aquatic jumper. I could go on, but you get the picture.

So, because we diverged onto our own little paths, we therefore can no longer have grounds for communication? Does divarication into different fields mean that we should burn all bridges to that common place and just bury ourselves in our field of study? What good is all the stuff we'd learn if we can't share it with the rest of the world?

Inventions and advancements in society come when people research something deeply, then they find some link with the real world and try make life better for everyone. A simple example is when some scientists experiment with chemicals and medicine and find that their solution cures small pox. A complex example is when some professors study quantum mechanics, which has nothing do to with algebra, and find some deep underlying pattern that tells us new things about algebra, creating algebraic discoveries like never before seen. Ok, maybe that's a bit of a stretch, but the point is that, for society to advance, divarication has to comes hand-in-hand with communication. What good is your secret formula if you don't know that it cures a disease, because you've been so buried in your little world that you haven't heard of that disease?

And, just because everyone is different, likes different things, has different skills suited for different tasks, and thinks differently - does that mean we should all live on our own islands and not talk to anyone else? Does divarication mean that you drift so far away from everyone else that you can no longer talk to other people without awkwardness?

We divaricate for a reason and we certainly need to talk to people with similar interests once in a while. Sometimes, people are so different and have such different values that we can't relate to them at all. But, there should be some common ground; we are all people and we live on the same planet, there should be something we can talk about. Perhaps it's the depletion of the ozone layer, or politics, or something else that affects everyday people. Or perhaps it's a book or a movie that's accessible to everyone. Is being an expert on German Romantic painters really satisfying if, on order to become such an expert, you alienated yourself from all other types of information, and now cannot carry on an everyday conversation with anyone without boring them with descriptions of Friedrich's brushstrokes in his early painting period because you don't know the weather outside, which was your only other conversation material? I didn't think so.

"Or maybe it's just me," my acquaintance continues, as she wonders where Bosphorus might be.

Yeah, it's just you. This is your world. You're living in it, you breathe it, you walk through it, and you affect it in your own way, be it small or big. It might not hurt to know a little something about this world of yours.