Words that caught me: R is for Rainbow

 

Imagine the world being purple,

And purple only.

 

Imagine that all of us wore purple clothes,

And everything we own, see and touch,

Was purple.

 

One colour only.

 

How would you like that?

 

Sometimes we see diversity as something inconvenient.

Sometimes we see ethnicity as something that separates us.

Sometimes we see the colour of our skin as something to be ashamed of,

Or as reason to disrespect and dehumanize someone.

Sometimes we see differing thoughts and ideas as frustrating and rebellious.

Sometimes we see the competition as the enemy.

 

Whenever you catch yourself thinking this way,

Just remember how it would be,

If everyone and everything was purple.

 

Here’s the truth.

There’s a tendency in each of us to separate and exclude.

That tendency may have served us well in our caveman days.

But it doesn’t and won’t serve us today.

In fact, it’s a key weakness,

In our society and institutions today.

Almost all inequality, unfairness and injustice in our society today,

Stems from this tendency to separate and exclude,

And to strip others off their humanity,

Reducing us into ‘Us vs Them’ clowns!

Look around you. Listen to the news.

Listen to your neighbours. Listen to yourself.

It's the same thing. Me. Them. Separation. Exclusion.

It's happening everywhere!

 

It’s important to realize there is a driver for this tendency.

It’s called fear.

Fear, driven by a mindless and nefarious scarcity mindset.

In fact, one can argue that the whole history of mankind,

Has been about the 'other'.

When we embrace the 'other', we have

Valentine Day, weddings, birthdays, thriving businesses,

Secure trade routes, kindness, caring and love.

When we exclude the 'other', we have

Wars, colonialism, slavery, racialism, apartheid,

Corruption, theft, hatred, anger, violence and destruction.

It's difficult not see,

That the future of mankind,

Depends, largely, on us striving to overcome this fear of the 'other',

And, instead, uphold the values of inclusion, synthesis and synergy.

Of Us. We. And togetherness.

 

The key challenge of the future,

Is for us to learn how to live beyond singularity, beyond linearity,

Beyond blandness…beyond a boring and monotonous purple!

 

How do we learn to better embrace the wholeness....and the rainbow that is us,

And that is life?