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It was the last sentence of this quote by Audre Lorde, an American writer and civil rights activist, that caught my attention. I knew what our differences were! But I started thinking and wondering about just what our sameness might be….
As members of the human family we all have the same need for food, for water, for shelter from the elements. But the food, the water, the shelter can vary depending on where we are and the conditions there. Here in Canada we need shelter from both the winter’s cold and the summer’s heat. In the tropics, the winter’s cold isn’t so much of a problem. So our housing needs are very different. The diets of people differ depending on what is available where they live. We can buy our water at the supermarket, should we choose to or get it from well, a lake, or a municipal water source. While others live in a part of the world where their water has to be carried long distances. It doesn’t seem to me that there is a true sameness to those needs.
So if the basic necessities of Food, water and shelter aren’t the sameness, then what is? And therein lies the question….
In her book, “A God that Could be Real” Nancy Abrams finds something worthy of the name “God” in the new science of emergence. She argues that God is ‘an emergent phenomenon’ creating the meaning of the universe. It can’t change the world, but it can help us change the world.
True sameness, to me, lies in that tiny spark, that Nancy Abrams calls an emergent phenomenon, that is within everyone whoever and wherever they are. It is what makes me, me and you, you. It is what links us to each other. It gives direction to our days and meaning to our lives. Only when we recognize this sameness can we truly respect, listen to and learn from each other.
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