One Love
“Mummy why do you call everyone your brother or sister or uncle or auntie when they are not your blood relatives?” Georgiana recently asked me this question and it led to one of the most insightful conversations we have ever had. By the end, she said “you must put that on the blog.”
I am saddened by the hatred and prejudice that goes on in the world. I wanted to be a lawyer because I have always had a strong sense of justice but as I grew older I realised its more than just dealing with cops and robbers. The real menace to society is the hidden one, the one masked and clothed in a sense of self-righteousness that will not reason with any other ideology which may seem different to what it proposes. I call it HATE and BULLYING.
Hatred for people who look different (skin colour or ethnicity)
Hatred for people who have different preferences
Hatred for those with different religious and spiritual views
Hatred for those with disabilities
Hatred for those with different body shapes and sizes
The list is endless…
You cannot change someone’s skin colour, body shape and sizes, don’t discriminate them for it because they had no choice in how they would look in this life and neither did you. You cannot change someone with deeply rooted religious beliefs but you can be respectful and kind. How would you like to be treated if you or a loved one had a disability? Have compassion to those with different preferences and lifestyle choices to yours. As mummy always ends a situation, if something about someone else bothers you so much, step away, “you do you!”.
I treat everyone like a family member, with an open mind seeking to bond over the things we have in common and enlightening each other in the areas we differ with an acceptance that we cannot all think or act the same. I always find that the people who mix with those who are different regularly have less prejudice and radical views than those who do not. I often weep over the homeless situation in my city because when I talk to them, they mostly start off by stating that broken family ties have led them to where they are. Broken relationships and infighting, leading to loneliness and isolation.
Regardless of what our views are we are all born through the same act, our bodies all function in the same way, to keep us alive. We all have red blood and we all die when our time here is over. You would think that just these reasons would be enough to make us understand that at a very basic level we are all related and part of one family. If two people from very different corners of the world with strong cultural roots and heritage embedded in them can meet and over a decade later create a beautiful melting pot, which binds not only their cultural backgrounds but fuses with other what can be accomplished if we allow ourselves to.
The Serenity Prayer By Reinhold Niebuhr has weaved its way into many cultural outlets but is most familiar to those seeking help with addiction. It speaks of a grace in accepting things that are different and puts forward a cogent argument, (in my mind). It favours acceptance over hatred, which is the complete opposite of Love.
God grant me the serenity
to accept the things I cannot change;
courage to change the things I can;
and wisdom to know the difference.
You cannot change a persons skin colour, don’t discriminate them for it because they had no choice in how they would look in this life and neither did you. You cannot change someone with deeply rooted religious beliefs but you can be respectful and kind. Live deeply, open your mind to the brothers and sisters we have all around us. If you approach anyone from a familial and welcoming perspective, whatever differences there are between you are immediately quashed because love, brotherhood and sisterhood kick in and there is no room for anything else. Love is the greatest commandment we have because if you love someone you will not steal from them, you will not let anger and negative thoughts lead you to kill, you will not conspire with others against them, you will want to protect them from harm, you will give them when they are in need, you will protect, not offend or shame them especially when they do not share your viewpoint. Close the distance between yourself and other cultures, races, beliefs by choosing love and acceptance.
I know this conversation will expand as the children get older but for now, we have a 7 and 4-year-old who see why mummy and daddy love and call everyone bro or sis.
The richer we have become materially,
the poorer we have become morally and spiritually.
We have learned to fly in the air like birds and
swim in the sea like fish, but we have not learned
the simple art of living together as brothers
Martin Luther King Jr.
Ahabi love
