A crisis like ‘Florence’ reminds us we are one people sharing a fragile planet

Why does it take a crisis to unite us and forget our differences? Watching the news as courageous first-responders rescued families in distress, I thought – those selfless people risking their lives to save their fellow human being didn’t care if the people they were saving were different than themselves. Their lives mattered.

Underneath the outer layer of our darker nature lies who we really are, our authentic selves, with our shared vulnerability exposed and our true humanity revealed. For a moment we forget the lie we tell ourselves that one life matters more than the “other.” For a moment we see ourselves in the face of the “other.” For a moment we witness the unconditional love and fleeting evidence of “oneness” for which we’re capable. Yes, we’re capable. Otherwise, what’s the point of being here?

Our automatic, unselfish, response to tragedy gives us a glimpse of what we must work to become all the time, not just now and then. We’re a single, connected, human race sharing the third planet from the sun with its thin atmosphere and life-and-death moments out of our control. We can’t control the weather, but there’s plenty we can control. We can control our thoughts. We can control our voice. We can control our actions.

If only people could get it that we aren’t separate, no matter how different our appearance, culture, lifestyle or beliefs might be. They’d understand what life really means and the reason we’re all here in the first place. They’d find themselves. We’d find each other. There’d be peace. It can happen. We have to make it happen.

The personal pain and suffering of those in the path of tragedy is never in vain. This and every tragedy are in our higher power’s plan for a reason. We don’t like it, but it’s there. Why? With each human tragedy we always see an outpouring of unconditional love in response. When that happens, we evolve one step closer to what we’re individually and collectively supposed to be, to why God put us here. We are all one.

[Post originally published September 15, 2018]