It may seem radical, but it truly is my great honor to quote a thinker I deeply respect for his unwavering commitment to spreading the message of peace on Earth: We have held the peculiar notion that a person or society that is a little different from us, whoever we are, is somehow strange or bizarre, to be distrusted or loathed. Think of the negative connotations of words like alien or outlandish. And yet the monuments and cultures of each of our civilizations merely represent different ways of being human. An extraterrestrial visitor, looking at the differences among human beings and their societies, would find the differences trivial compared to the similarities. The Cosmos may be densely populated with intelligent beings. But the Darwinian lesson is clear: There will be no humans elsewhere. Only here. Only on this small planet. We are a rare as well as an endangered species. Every one of us is, in the cosmic perspective, precious. If a human disagrees with you, let him live. In a hundred billion galaxies, you will not find another. -Carl Sagan Ive made a unique Middle Eastern playlist for classes this week. It is done out of an intention to unify us with those whom it can be so easy to perceive as the other. In practice this week, we will have the opportunity to look at the bigger cosmic picture while being aware of the part we play in the smaller picture: loving our fellow humans, even our enemies. At the end of the day, no matter how deep the darkness that may cloak both our hearts and our actions, we are all in this together.
Posted on: Mon, 13 Oct 2014 18:42:53 +0000
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