Understanding language leads to healing of community

A wall in Mexicali reads more love please. Photo by 1983 (steal my _ _ art) on Unsplash.

In America, we say “God willing.” In Mexico and other places, they say “si Dios quiere.” The phrases mean the same thing but they sound different.

When you live in the borderlands, or in any community where two worlds come together, people say the same thing to each other but different words are heard, different syllables, different inflections of tone.