Our Common Origin, History and Destiny

Origin

We are thrown into the world, we do not choose where we land, yet it defines who we are.

Whether we are born in good health, or at all; whether we are provided a high quality education, or even have the chance read; whether we get the opportunity to lead a life of fulfilment, or of suffering; the fundamental forces that shape our lives are determined by an accident of birth.

Yet we so often believe that we are the sole authors of our fate. We fail to recognise that the self who does the choosing has not been chosen. That it is as much our circumstance that determines our character, as our character our circumstance.

This is not to say that we have no control over the direction our lives will take. For it is for each of us to decide what we shall do with the fate we have been bestowed. In doing so, we should see those advantages that we have been afforded, not as entitlements to which we are deserving, but as privileges with which we have been honoured.

Because each of us can use our advantages to contribute to something much greater than our own material enrichment. We can use the skills, talents and resources at our disposal to attain an inner fulfilment that can only come with pursuing something much greater than ourselves — a better future for all.

History

The universality of our origin is clouded by the diversity of our appearance. For the differences that result from the lottery of life have been used as a source of division. The walls erected through history; whether physical in the form of the borders between nations, ideological in the battlefield of politics, theological in the search for salvation, or racial in the belief of ethnic supremacy, have made obscure what is so clear — that we have a common history.

The very essence of our day-to-day lives — the principles by which we live, the technologies we use, the art that moves us, the literature that lifts us, the calculus we value, the language we speak, and the food we eat are the culmination of thousands of years of human endeavour merged through time across the landscape of history.

The concept of democracy was born in the hills of Ancient Greece, the religion of Christianity was born in the Middle East, the plays of Shakespeare came from an Englishman inspired by foreign lands, the general theory of relativity was conceived in the mind of a German, and the phone that most of us have in our pocket was developed by the son of a Syrian refugee who sought safety in the United States.

The fabric of humanity has been woven through the toil, sweat, tears and endeavours of people from across the world throughout time. We have allowed the illusions of difference divide us, while the lives we live today have only been made possible by the pursuits of people that have defined human history.

The borders that mark the countries in which we reside today can seem as natural as they are arbitrary when we consider that they are merely drawings penned through the vagaries of history as drafted by the contours of geography. The Middle East and Africa were carved up by the hands of imperial masters, the nations of Europe have been determined by centuries of conflict, Asia has been characterised by conquest and the Americas by revolution. The borders that separate us are not as permanent as they appear, for they are only as strong as the belief that holds them.

Our personal histories are not as simple as the wording on our passport portrays or the national anthem we sing allows, or even the country in which we reside infers. For each of us is more diverse in our origin than we wish to believe or seek to remember — because, as we are too frequent to forget, and too infrequent to consider — we are all people.

As we traverse our own family histories, we see parents who migrated in that search for a better life, we see a grandparent marrying a person from another nation — because love knows no borders — and we witness changes in beliefs as our ancestors bear witness to changing circumstances. As we look even further back, to the very beginning of human history, we realise that we are all descended from a tiny group of mammals who have now grown to cover the world.

This does not mean that we cannot be proud of the country of our birth, or of which we are a citizen. It is simply to ensure that the scope of our moral universe is not bound by the nearest hill. Because we could have been born in the mountains of Afghanistan, the streets of India or the estates of the United Kingdom. It was not for us to decide, but for fate to determine.

Destiny

Our birth brings life to our shared origin just as our mortality commits us to a shared destiny. Our history and future are bound by this common blanket, and it is with those who are currently reading this that you also share something even more significant — a common moment in time.

A time when so many of the problems the world faces today are global in origin and consequence — whether it be poverty, climate change, disease or the threat of nuclear weapons. A time when we are more connected than ever through commerce, our colleagues and our friends. A time where the globalised world in which we live means that even before we have finished breakfast each of us is dependant on more than half of the world.

It is a time when we cannot escape the mutuality of our existence. Because the decisions that we make as consumers, producers, and citizens have global implications that are no less significant because their consequences are hidden from us. Yet, we live in a world of competing national interests, when the only thing that can advance out interest is to see beyond our own nations.

It is by understanding that we share a common origin, history and destiny; that the borders that divide us in our minds can be broken with our hearts. That we can cast aside the conflicts of the past to address the problems of today and fulfil the promise of tomorrow.

It is for this reason that I believe that for each of us, there can be nothing more meaningful in its endeavour, more challenging in its pursuit, and more compelling in its purpose than shaping a better future for us all.

It is for each of us to write the part we will play in building this future — a role that will ultimately be recorded in the annals of history.

So that when the next generation are thrown into the world, they shall be pleased, wherever they may land.