We Are One Family!

During December, I enjoyed having signed up to the TED Talks “31 Days of Ideas.” Each day, a different idea would arrive in my inbox – notes about why this talk was chosen, and a link to the talk. The last talk, on 31st December, was this one.

The first part seems long, but stay with it and you will expand into our shared human story on this planet – shared through our love of music and poetry. Jorge’s message is profound yet simple: beneath the obvious racial and cultural distinctions, we’re all part of the same family.

I loved Jorge’s story, building the technical components for us, expanding into what they tell us about our shared humanity, then ending with his precious music and poetry with its profound message. As well as being a great performer, his message is one that needs to be heard in every part of our world.

He speaks about Walt Whitman’s poem The Wound Dresser, and the pain that the wound dresser feels when caring for the war wounds of his fellow humans. And, as so many of us do, he wonders “Why?”

I remember the day that our son was born. I held him tight to my breast and vowed to do everything in my power to keep him from dying in a war as my uncle had. Since then I’ve developed a personal creed of kindness, best embodied in these ancient words which I learned at school: forgive us our trespasses, as we forgive them that trespass against us. If we remember that we are all one family living on the same planet, then what need of war in any form?

Seems so simple, yet this needs us to be trusting and vulnerable alongside our fellow travellers on planet Earth.

I live in hope.

Wendy