I’ve spent my entire life in the same place. I was born over seven decades ago in a small hospital in the Houston Heights on a cold November day. Only briefly did I ever live anywhere but in the Houston metropolitan area when my family moved to California during my third grade year just before my father died. Most of my story unfolds in neighborhoods south of downtown Houston where I have watched the city grow into the fourth largest and most diverse city in the United States. Somehow my lack of experience living in other places has been supplemented by education, travel and a voracious appetite for reading. For someone who has been somewhat isolated in where I have lived, I have developed a much larger worldview than might have been thought possible.
Perhaps my perspectives were initially influenced by the fact that my maternal grandparents were first generation immigrants to the United States, people who embraced their new country while still possessing the language and traits of their birthplace. They were outsiders attempting to be accepted during a time when prejudices against anyone who was different were running amok on a worldwide scale. They bravely attempted to overlook the slights that they experienced while urging their children to embrace American culture.
With the back drop of two world wars and an economic depression my grandparents raised eight children who dutifully ignored the taunts and rocks that were thrown at them to become solid citizens who were indistinguishable from Americans who had lived in this country for generations. Nonetheless, my mother would often speak of the hard work that had to be done to place them on seemingly equal footing with their peers. Somehow she and her siblings were courageous and proud souls who also carried the scars of being the first in their line to be born as citizens of the United States.
My father was an avid reader. Memories of him always include images of him captivated by a book or newspaper article with classical music playing in the background. I often accompanied him to libraries and bookstores where I began to develop the same love for learning that he had. Gifts from him always seemed to include favorite texts and time sitting next to him while he read stories out loud. Even though my life with him was cut short, his influence would follow me to this day.
Later I encountered teachers who challenged me to think beyond the confines of where I lived and the limited experiences that I had. A seventh grade teacher taught me how to look for evidence of propaganda in the things I saw and heard. A high school teacher showed me how to become a citizen of the world. A science teacher introduced me to the vastness of the universe. A debate coach helped me learn how to approach life from many different points of view. When i became a teacher myself, I saw children from so many different backgrounds and I learned from them how to cherish everyone and their cultures.
I have come to appreciate the variety of the world in all of its many colors, languages, traditions, religions and ways of living. I understand that the differences between us are mostly superficial. When taken down to our bare bones we all share the same hierarchy of needs. First and foremost is our desire for safety and sustenance. We all seek a place where we might live without want or danger. Once those things are secure we quite naturally use our human intellect to attempt to understand the world around us.
Humankind has wandered across the globe since our very beginnings. We explore and study and learn how to make things better. It is in our very natures to want shelter from harm but also to ask questions and create new ways of living. Somehow each of us has a particular set of skills and desires that draw us to the jobs that we must do to keep things running smoothly. We need everyone and every idea so that we will not stagnate and become so insular that we are unable to get along.
Jealousy and prejudices lead first to misunderstandings between individuals and in the worst scenarios to wars between groups and nations. Most of us never want such things but all too often in the history of the world innocents have been caught up in the refusal of powerful political forces to get along. Suffering has been a constant presence in everyone’s life, but some groups have consistently seen more than others. Our human natures can lean toward ugliness when we are unwilling to see the beauty in every individual regardless of differences that confound us. Stereotyping and tribal behaviors have always been the bane of existence.
I love my world best when we rise up together to help each other. There is a goodness in humanity that eventually trumps the evil inclinations of our species. When we have had enough of hate and war and death we find our way out of the gutter and embrace each other without prejudice or evil intent. We are indeed evolving, but doing so requires us to remove our blinders and rose colored glasses and truly look beyond the ideas that pull us apart. When we can see refugees as people acting out of love for their families instead of criminals attempting to invade us we are on our way to humane solutions for living together as a worldwide family rather than a collection of warring tribes. When I pray for peace on earth I know that it will be up to each of us to help make that happen. Getting there will begin with a willingness to embrace the world and its people by seeing the profound value of each of us.
All It Takes Is A Little Love 