If I ask you to quickly name all the things that divide us as humans how many can you name? I’m guessing quite a few. I ran this experiment first on myself and my family. We easily rattled off all of the obvious things: race, religion, economic status, politics, nationality, birthplace, appearance, style, gender, class, etc., etc., etc. Why, do you suppose, is this list so easily created? Could it, perhaps, be due to the fact that we are inundated daily through the constant repetition of the media telling us who to fear, who to hate, who to cheer for and who has got to go? Sometimes it’s subtle, almost subliminal, but many times it’s glaringly apparent the message it’s intent on driving home. And it’s always there, if not in the foreground, then in the background, it’s there. Even on social media which I believe is a much more controlled environment, there’s the ever present discord. The separation, the age old ‘divide and conquer’ rhetoric that’s a highly effective tool for power structures to keep us fighting amongst ourselves so that we don’t unite against them.
So what unites us? Make a list. How quickly does it come to mind? Red blood, love, family, we are all “hue”mans. We eat, we sleep, we hope, we laugh, we cry, we’re born, we die. I must admit that it took a bit more thought to create this list, but it did invoke a really nice feeling within me. Because in my mind I saw so many different people wearing different clothes, in different homes eating different food while speaking different languages, and I saw them all doing the same beautiful, unifying things. So what does unite us? I’ve traveled quite a bit with my daughter, to many different countries. We’ve met such a variety of people with very diverse colors, religions, cultures, nationalities, etc. But there is always one unifying theme…people just want to live in peace and be happy. We, as average, every day human beings just want the necessities of life and the freedom to be ourselves. We’re not born hating our differences, we’re taught to. Throw a bunch of children together and they play. Honestly, if you throw a bunch of adolescents or adults together where they’re not emboldened by a closed-minded herd mentality, they will find common ground.
So if we wish to create unity among us, first we must think along those lines and feel the corresponding emotions. After all…as a man thinketh.. Real change begins with a thought which becomes an action which, in turn, becomes a habit and a way of life. Division and discord is not our natural state of being. These negative attributes have been affixed to us through political and religious constructs that benefit financially and in terms of control by pitting us against each other on every level imaginable and, sadly, we fall for it. So I encourage you as I encourage myself to make a conscious decision to ignore the divide and conquer scheme and to see all the amazing ways we are connected as humans, as people, as humanity, as one.
