Life in the stew...

I've just returned again from China. I am continuously amazed by how similar disparate people really are. I've lived in Japan, Australia, Europe and the east coast, the south, the middle and the west coasts of America. I've worked on every continent except Antarctica. As the peoples and economies of the world become more inter-dependent and as communication becomes more instantaneous we as a species can no longer afford the luxury of holding onto beliefs that we are different from one another. The economic policies as well as the politics and religious dogmas that espouse exclusion, that foster illusions of being "chosen" in some fashion prevent us from recognizing our similarities. If I am continuously sorting for differences I will never recognize (or be able to capitalize on) our similarities. I'm afraid that we as a "civilized" and "advanced" species are doomed to continue fueling an accelerating rush to a suffocating stagnation unless we can begin leading with our ideals.

I'm intersted in what would happen if God could raise his or her voice loudly enough (or perhaps soften it enough?) to be heard and asked humankind a simple question - "What do you want?"

I doubt if the answers returned would be "I want to live a life of fear", "I want to hate my neighbor", "I want to live a life dominated by another", "I want to feel inadequate", "I want to hate", or "I want to be reviled and hated". Experiences I've had during almost three decades of travel and living around the world suggest to me that exactly the opposite answers would be given.

Our ideals are universal; they are shared and connect rather than separate us. We as a species need to select leaders that honor this fact; we as individuals can't afford to live our lives in denial of this truth.

A great question to end each day with is to ask myself how each person I encountered today felt about themselves while they were in my presence. As a practice, living my life so as to answer this question in a way I can be proud of can begin the process of truly living my ideals.