One of my fondest memories of driving through rural Indonesia is seeing a large group of people washing their clothes in a river. I remember watching them as we drove slowly past and not feeling sorry for them, not placing them in a poverty box, I remember wanting to be in the river with them.
I was looking at them, laughing, bathing, throwing clothes around, immersed in nature, completely at peace.
No washing machine, no mansion, no worries.
Lately I have been thinking about how much noise loudly bangs from social media, even when the mute button is firmly on.
I see people parading, I see people performing, I see people creating imaginary lives, I see confusion, I see politics…
So much noise.
I have been reticent of late to write, because I have been so scared that I am just adding to that noise.
I am scared that I am creating a platform that creates a different perception to my everyday reality.
As I walk in nature though, I am stilled to see.
Nature helps me have eyes to see.
I have been looking.
I have been searching for quiet voices who are contributing to people’s lives instead of bashing their drum loudly.
I have been finding steady, quiet, voices, who may not have many followers or seem successful in a world full of filters but who are bringing an encouragement to life.
In the end we are all human.
Our response to the Gay Marriage Debate, or the family trying to return home from Syria after exposing their family to terrorism, or a lady breastfeeding on the front of a popular magazine shows more about how we view ourselves, than the details of the debate.
The way we respond to an issue in popular culture, brings up the deep ushering of our foundational beliefs in humankind.
What do I believe?
I believe ‘In the end we are all human.’ It doesn’t matter how many accolades, how many friends, how many opportunities, what we do, what we say, what we wear. In the end we all bleed the same blood. In the end we all go to sleep at night. In the end we all have one life to live.
William Shakespeare said this…
One touch of nature and we are all kin.
Whether it be an earthquake or the beauty of a roaring ocean, in the end we are all levelled by the power of that which is greater than us all.
All the parading, all the performing in the end will not matter.
What will matter is how we treated our kin.
What will matter is what we contributed to the universe collectively.
What will matter is the way we treated the least of these.
In the end we all bleed the same blood and the way we treat one another has the greatest of impact.
It makes me smile sometimes when I travel, no matter what part of the plane you sat in, you still have to line up in customs, you still have to queue for your luggage.
In the end you and I we are actually very similar, we are uniquely human.
And that my friend is why we need to have eyes to see.
See what we have in common, rather than all that which divides us.
So true. One of the talks at TEDx was all about bullying and how this particular boy overcame by seeing the bullies as human. The bullies became his friends. He said, ‘we’re all human.’ An important reminder. Xxx
Thanks so much Elaine. A fair amount of bullying happening online at the moment.