ONE PLANET, ONE PEOPLE

excerpt from RACE UNITY@ (see Aug 31, 2010)

When we looked at the picture of the planet taken from the space flight many years ago and saw our earth with swirls of clouds and green land spots, we had a paradigm shift on a global scale of our perceptions of ourselves.  Our finite self in a multitude of billions of  other finite selves on this beautiful blue ball.  We could not see the man-made boundaries between countries, the names we were familiar with on the globe at school which showed the barriers between peoples.  We became aware on some gut level that we were one.  Since that time we have seen the man-made barriers shift or disappear altogether.  The Berlin wall came down.  The USSR disappeared and many smaller countries became sovereign or struggled for sovereignty.  Pakistan split into Pakistan and Bangladesh - and on and on and on.  Communication has now reached such that we can communicate in seconds with someone on the other side of this planet.  Through satellite TV we can see someone on the other side of the planet instantly.

When we envision ourselves as humans, rather than what has been our inclination to split ourselves into groups based on color, nationality, ethnicity, language or culture we can have the same paradigm shift on a gut level and we are humans.  We started out in the same place and migrated.  We developed different looks through adaptation to climate and survival needs.  Now we are able to manipulate our climate and manage our survival no matter where we live.  We are coming back together in a global family reunion.  We don't know all our cousins.  Some seem strange, some are familiar but we are all cousins at the very least in the same family of humankind.  A family reunion is sometimes awkward at first but the more we are together the more we enjoy and cherish the little and big idiosyncrasies that distinguish us as individuals but we are still family.

When we meet a cousin who seems shy, or harsh, or loud, or unruly, or weird, or sounds strange, or seem anything different from what is familiar to us we try (because we are family) to be patient, learn their story, learn their pain, learn their interests so that they become understandable and accepted.  We love them no matter what and we want to be loved no matter what.

WE ARE ONE!

Much love in our common struggle,

Anne

Dec. 2000