DAY 39 – KEY ASPECT: THE HUMAN FAMILY

I am leaving a conference where there was one representative from every nationality, religion, race and ethnicity on the face of the earth talking about what life was like for them. On the street, my imagination started to take over. I saw myself standing in the middle of an intersection filled with hundreds of people of diverse backgrounds and beliefs. Surrounding us are hundreds of people at each of the four corners of the intersection. One corner has people who all belong to the same nationality. At another corner there are people who all have the same religious beliefs. At the third corner are people of the same race. At the fourth corner are people of the same ethnicity.

I walked down the middle of the street until I came to the next intersection. The same thing happened. Each corner represented a specific nationality, religion, race and ethnicity while the middle of the intersection represented people of different backgrounds and ideologies. I kept on walking through twenty intersections and they all have a similar theme, diversity in the middle of the street and separate groups at each corner.

The people at each corner separated themselves off from anyone who is different. No one could step onto that parcel of sidewalk who does not have the same background and beliefs. Everyone else who is not the same as they are is considered an outsider and could not join them in their part of the sidewalk.

This is in sharp contrast to the diversity of the people in the middle of each intersection. They welcomed anyone and everyone into their group while encouraging one another to share stories about themselves and their various beliefs about life. No one held anti-thoughts or had ill will towards anyone who is not the same. The one thing that united all of us is that we considered every human being a part of the human family.

When we separate ourselves because of where we are from or a strongly held ideology it becomes the underpinnings to believe that those who are different is not welcome into our collective home. I will stay in my corner of the world and you stay somewhere else. I will think about myself and you take care of yourself.

Stripping away those thoughts that categorize human beings into us and them allows people to become part of the extensive human family. Just like being part of one’s individual family, a collective societal mindset allows us to live our lives for the mutual benefit of all of humanity. How we conduct our lives and affairs changes because we understand that life is about everyone thriving for no other reason than they are a fellow human being.

When others are part of the human family we go out of our way to freely share insights that propels other people to greater heights. When we discover the best methods to prevent problems we share it freely. When we have a better way of conducting human affairs we work together so it can benefit one and all.

When this imaginary walk ended I now realize that when we change our thinking about our fellow human beings from a specific group perspective to a human family perspective it makes everyone equally important and valuable. We thus make it more likely that human beings around the planet will become united in a collective effort to create a better world for all of humanity.