We thought we would share something that resonated with us in this challenging moment.
“In the Hindu Upanishads, there’s a passage that speaks to how those who become wise lose their names in the Great Oneness, the way rivers lose their names when they flow into the sea. In this transformation from the solitary to the communal, there’s a mysterious physics that each generation has to relearn regarding what is possible when we can work together. Time and again, we’re asked to discover, through love and suffering, that we are at heart the same.
No matter where we come from, no matter how we got here, we all yearn to be seen, heard, and respected. I believe that under all our fear and brutal trespass, we are innately kind and of the same humanity. Under what divides us, we all long to belong and to be understood. We are they, despite the terrible violence that surfaces between us.
And all our gifts are needed to stitch and weave the tapestry of freedom.
Today I am afraid that the noise of hate is drowning out the resilience of love. I fear that we are tripping into a dark age. And like the medieval monks who kept literacy alive during the Dark Ages in Europe, we are challenged to commit to a life of care and to keep the literacy of the heart alive.
It seems that we are at a basic crossroads between deepening the decency that comes from caring for each other and spreading the contagion of making anyone who is different into an enemy. We are called to find our way — the timeless choice between love and fear — as individuals and as a nation.
It is not a choice of policy, it is the choice of decency that keeps us human. In the face of the disturbances stirred up by fear, I implore you to be kind and truthful, to be a lantern in the dark, and to call out prejudice wherever you see it. In addition to whatever ways each of us is called to gather, participate, legislate, or protest, I implore you to never stop watering the seeds of human decency.
More than a point of blame, this question is a place to begin, again and again. For when we can listen deeply and give freely, there is a natural evolution from the exploration of an inner self to the practice of care between self and other. My hope is that the power of community and connection can add more meaning to our lives—so we can draw strength from each other.
Ours is a complicated era, and so we need every resource and example of heart and resilience we can find. It is both comforting and challenging to realize that no one person can wrestle from the Earth the song of how we can survive together, and no one voice can sing that chorus.
We need each other more than ever.”
By Mark Nepo