Just outside the darkened room...

I often find myself wondering these days what has become of our understanding of our shared humanity.  In a critical way, we have collectively forgotten that we are all connected. 

That we are all human.  That we are one. 

Having traveled a great deal I have had the opportunity to spend time with people whose lives look at once nothing and everything like my own.  We are, you see, all striving for the same things despite the material differences in our circumstances, the relative position of our geography, our historical inheritances, cultural norms and daily lives.  These are merely the housing for the meaty inner bits of being human.  The outer layers may look different, but what lies inside is inevitably the same. 

We all want to be loved.  We all want to be understood.  We all want the best for our families, friends and loved ones.  We want something purposeful to do with our days and our lives. 

We all seek meaning – what are we even doing here anyway?

And yet, all too often, the fact that we may do these things in worlds apart – in another time zone, a different cultural context, or with foreign sounding words – makes us forget that we are all just doing the best we can here together at any given moment.  The best, kindest thing that we can do for ourselves and for other people – whoever they are – is to take the time to look beyond the divergent exteriors and to move towards this common ground of family, love, dreams, hope, and potential. 

We all have them.  We all want them. 

If any two people in the world were placed in a darkened room alone and asked to talk about their dreams for their lives, their fears, their hopes for their families, or their love of their children, they would leave that room with a sense of commonality and when the lights came on their differences would no longer matter.