Hey, you’re human, right?
Conservative, Liberal, Christian, Muslim, Atheist, White, Brown, Black, Upper Class, Lower Class, Middle Class – it doesn’t matter right now.
There are threats we face that don’t care about those differences.
There are threats we face that do just one thing – destroy the life of the Human Organism.
Because of some of the myths underlying our culture and common sense, we haven’t learned about our connection to one another and the world around us.
Instead, we’ve been trained to see ourselves as separate isolated beings, wondering a foreign planet, needing to confront and conquer it.
And that couldn’t be farther from the Truth.
We did not COME INTO this planet, as many think – we GREW OUT OF IT.
Just like a wave grows out of the ocean.
The wave is both separate and a part of the ocean – it’s the same body of water. In the same way, we’re both separate and of one and the same, with connections running far deeper than we can ever imagine.
Just as the skin grows hairs, the Earth grows people.
Our existence on this planet is a symptom of the solar system and its balance, just as much as the solar system is a symptom of our galaxy and its balance.
Even in our communication, we can’t really define something without its relationship to another thing. For example, to describe someone walking, we also need to describe the space (floor, room, etc.) in which ‘walking’ is happening.
We can’t describe walking on its own, as just feet dangling in empty space. There needs to be a space where walking happens.
In just the same way, we cannot really know ourselves, without knowing about the other.
The only way we’re able to define ourselves is with the relationship to the other. In other words, we know who we are in terms of other people.
I’m tall and you’re short; you’re skinny and I’m fat; I think this way, you think that way. If it wasn’t for you, I wouldn’t be I; and if wasn’t for I, you wouldn’t be you.
It’s like having two sticks leaning on each other; they stand up because they support each other. If you were to take one of the sticks away, the other would fall. They inter-depend – just like we do.
In other words, we’re not separate.
We’re all backs and fronts to each other.
We, and our environment, are all interdependent systems, coming together to form the one entire system – LIFE as we know it.
“We are all the leaves of one tree. We are all the waves of one sea.”
— Thich Nhat Hanh