Our Differences. Our Unity.

Sometimes the deepest insights are the simplest ones. When I was a kid, my mom would tell me “everyone is different.” It was her way of encouraging me to embrace diversity and be open-minded about people.

Today, this simple idea — that we are all unique — rings even more true.

We all have our own stories. Our successes and failures. Happiness and heartache. We have our own weaknesses and strengths and perspectives. And our differences are what makes each of us special. They make us who we are.

In these divisive times it seems important to remember these kinds of simple truths. Bigotry and hatred are based on the opposite of the truth my Mom taught me as a kid. They are based on a lie of similarity and backwards ideas like defining people by skin color and religion.

The Truth is that the world is messy, and we each bring our own unique perspectives and experiences to the table. We don’t fit into neat little boxes. And whenever you think you know what it’s like to be another person, that’s where mistaken thinking begins.

We can’t know what it’s like to be someone else, until we’ve walked a mile in their shoes.

Another, related idea is another simple truth: we aren’t so different after all.

The most liked tweet in history was shared by our former President Obama this week, and it encapsulated this other truth. As kids we all knew that we aren’t really so different as it appears on the surface. Kids laugh and play and hug one another, regardless of what they look like on the outside.

These two ideas, that we are different and yet we are the same, intersect in the ideas of forgiveness and reconciliation. The simple truths: love your neighbor. We are one.

Somewhere along the path from being kids who laugh and play with all the other kids to being adults who put everyone into boxes, we lost our way. Childhood divine kindness and light got covered up with all sorts of stuff like pain and heartache. Sadness and anxiety. Disappointment and anger. Fear and resentment.

Even folks who spew hate were kids at some point. They had that purity of heart. Maybe they still have it somewhere inside.

The idea of forgiveness and reconciliation in a painful time isn’t easy. Hate breeds injury and pain, and our world has too much of that. And just like we can’t know what it is like to walk in someone else’s shoes, it isn’t fair to assume that forgiveness is going to be easy for others.

But I do think for me, finding a way to reserve judgment. To forgive. To find a way to a kind of reconciliation and unity in our common human values is the right path.

This might be where the wisdom of peaceful resistance enters the picture. Folks who stand for their values but doing so in peace. Because it does seem necessary to fight for what is right.

Maybe it is about putting our values of Equality and Justice front and center in our own lives and being the change we want to see in the world. Maybe if as individuals we each do the things we think are right, we can build a collective force of folks doing that kind of work.

I’m not really sure.

But I do think love wins. Our diversity is our strength. Equality and Justice will prevail. And our best days, United together in our common values, lie far ahead.

Everybody is different. But we aren’t so different after all. So we should love one another. And be united as one.