I've often wondered what would happen if the only two people left on this earth were avowed enemies of each other. As these only survivors of a disastrous worldwide attack were to suddenly find themselves trapped together in a foxhole, would they hold onto one another for dear life or would they sit with their backs facing the other?

Being the eternal idealist, the glass half-full, the rose colored glasses type, I believe not only would they hold onto one another for dear life – together, they would figure out how to get out of their desperate predicament, create a life together, and perhaps if one were a man and the other a woman, they would create a society. No longer chained to the historical hatreds and desires to kill one another, these two surviving souls would get down to what Walt Whitman referred to, as “the rag and bone shop of the mind” which is the spit and glue that ties us all together as people pursuing a common human destiny.

While recognizing, differences, understanding differences, and respecting differences, is incredibly important, I can’t help but think that in the end, all many people will ever see is differences. This bothers me greatly because it tends to reinforce the presumed understanding that one group is better than another just because they are different. Differences have been pretty divisive throughout history. Differences have led people to irrational thinking and violent behavior just because differences have served to justify wars, ethnic cleansing, and other obscene forms of genocide and group alienation. Differences have led people to believe their religion is better than any other, their form of government is a better system than any other, it has even led the petty to believe the bigger house has better people in it than the family residing in the shack, etc.

I think we miss the boat if we can’t also recognize the importance of our commonalities, the myriad ways in which we are the same. Our basic differences arise out of our particular set of circumstances - our experiences, our cultures, our religious traditions, etc. But the human response to those circumstances I believe is what links us together. I am confident that under the very same set of experiences, most every one of us would respond similarly and it would make perfect sense. So, if this is the presumption, then Harvard Professor Tu Weiming’s discussion of reciprocity (‘Do unto others as you would have others do unto you’) makes perfect sense, too. Unfortunately very often reciprocity is forgotten or purposefully omitted, as we get caught in the limitations of our own ways; that our ambitions, desires no matter how well intended, are absolutely right and We, not They should follow suit. Perhaps this is also a human tendency that binds us together.

As we become more of a global society, it seems to me that we have a greater obligation to see that we are one humanity and we can learn a lot from those who are very different from us. We need to understand that the Other might just as well be us - we could be the ones in their shoes. By ignoring or hating the Other, we open ourselves up to unpredictable and unimaginable violence. We’ve all seen images coming out of the Middle East of blown apart structures knowing that body parts have been dismembered and flown through the air. It may very well be the intention of some to abrogate the road to peace this violently. Yet we cannot ignore that there is a tear in the soul of humanity (even if it’s happening over There), and we must find a way to heal the condition that has created this horrible human disease and serves to threaten all humanity.

We are at a crossroads in our human history. We are very well versed in how we can destroy one another – even with precision that was ‘Shock and Awe.’ It seems to me that we need to unearth the soul that is all humanity – the common seeds that connect us to one another. These seeds exist in the tenets of all religions. These seeds exist in all good forms of many governments. These seeds exist in caring communities, and loving homes. These seeds exist in each one of us. These seeds enable us to dream of a better tomorrow. A tomorrow where our once avowed enemy becomes our friend.