The Philosophy That Drives Stanton DeFreitas: We Are All Citizens of the World
Some philosophies are inherited. Others are earned through experience. For Stanton DeFreitas , his guiding belief — that every human being is, at their core, a citizen of the world — was both. The international business consultant and emerging writer developed this perspective through a childhood unlike most, one spent at the center of one of North America's most culturally diverse communities. Born in Toronto, Ontario, Canada, and raised specifically in the Scarborough district on the city's east side, DeFreitas was immersed from childhood in a richly multicultural environment. Scarborough attracts immigrants from nearly every country on earth, and that demographic reality created a neighborhood where encountering people from vastly different backgrounds wasn't an occasional event — it was simply Tuesday afternoon. DeFreitas absorbed this environment deeply, drawing from it an appreciation for cultural identity, spiritual practice, language, and tradition that extended...