That which does NOT divide us.
We are all different in so many ways. Race, creed, color, gender, sexual orientation, nationality…but instead of focusing on our differences, and creating gaps and divides over them – we need to start focusing on all the ways we are the same.
The business and political and religious leaders in this world love to explore, exploit, and emphasize all of our differences. They use them to create fear of one group or another, to control whom they can, and to sew chaos and disarray among us all. They take advantage of our naiveté and our complacency and work to create greater gaps and divides among us. They do this to maintain their power, their control, and their sway over us. Often they do this so subtly, by the time we recognize it for what it is, it is immensely difficult to reverse.
I acknowledge that my views are my own. I know that you may have very different views on politics, religion, morality, spirituality, and how to go about living life. But my point here is that while we have these differences, when all is said and done, we are the same.
No matter what culture, race, gender, faith, color or what-have-you we identify ourselves as – WE ARE ALL HUMAN. As such, we are all subject to the same perfections and imperfections of these bodies, the need for sustenance, and the ability to think completely and totally independently of one another.
EVERY one of us is capable of thinking, feeling, loving, hating, healing and hurting ourselves, and to a lesser degree those around us. EVERY human has needs, wants, desires, dreams and demons. ALL of us have been born, live one day to the next, and will eventually die.
Our greatest strength in many ways is also our greatest weakness. We are diverse. We look different from one another, we act differently, we think differently. We identify with different groups, ideals, ways of being. And that diversity makes us strong in giving us so many wonderous varieties…and makes us weak in giving us ways to exploit and fear those variations between us.
I believe, when all is said and done, we are ALL one. We are all energy, which can neither be created nor destroyed. Our “souls”, if you will, are all the same. No matter the physical, psychological, emotional or cultural differences between us – we are all made of the exact same material, and are all similar.
In many ways, we celebrate this. We revel on our individuality, and consider ourselves superior to the other wonders of this world because of this. But then, some take this too far, and choose to use the dissimilarities between us in order to empower only themselves, and to create derision and distress in us all.
As humans, we have an inherent need to learn, to explore, to understand. We grow, we change, we are inconstant creatures. Yet we have these desires to nest, to nurture, and to protect both ourselves and those we develop kinships with, naturally or otherwise. We are social creatures, and while some groups we are born into, others we choose along the way.
We also are competitive creatures…and that competition often takes the form of group on group contests. This has evolved, or devolved, frankly, into intolerance of different groups, hatred, violence, warfare, and even genocides. Our competitions ignore our similarities, and cause us to become further divided, more greatly separated.
We often choose not to take control of these competitive situations, not to seize the power that is rightfully our own. We let others lead us, influence us, sway how we think and feel. And this can be a good thing – except when those others try to get us to be intolerant, hateful, and destructive. No good comes of intolerance and hatred. We only lose when we focus on these things.
I don’t care of you are pro-life or pro-choice, Republican or Democrat, rich or poor, fat or thin, black or white, male of female, gay or straight – it doesn’t matter if this is genetics or choice – but when we are intolerant, hateful and divisive, we only hurt ourselves.
You reap what you sew. If you put out hate and intolerance and derision, guess what you are asking for in return? More often than not, you will find, that is precisely what you will get. And what good does this do any of us?
So rather than getting focused on all of our differences, and furthering those divides, I think we need to work more on focusing on how we are ALL THE SAME. We all have needs and desires, we all have hopes and dreams…and we can work together for the betterment of one another.
Instead of getting caught up in all the ways we are different from each other, we need to remember how we are the same. Instead of working against each other, we need to work more WITH each other. We need to remember that when we think ill of others, we ask the same of them. We need to do better at being tolerant, loving, and together rather than apart.
No, I am not suggesting we join hands in a circle and sing “Kumbaya”, but I am suggesting we stop letting ourselves get caught up in negativity, intolerance, and the attempts by those in power to further our differences. We each have to start on our own, and make the effort to empower ourselves.
Think about this the next time you see another post to Facebook or Google+ about how one group is trying to keep another group down, how someone is trying to deny someone else their rights, or about how one group must stop another for nothing but selfish reasons. Be aware of how those in power, or attempting to hold sway work to divide us, define us by our differences, rather than work for the greater good on all the similarities between us.
You may not agree with me. But can you see how, by furthering the things that divide us, we make our lives more complicated and less joyful than they need to be?
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