As we approach Martin Luther King Day, what better time could there be to consider the ways in which we can individually help to build a better world— and what better way than by starting to celebrate our diversity in order to sanctify life. I am just reading Invention of Wings by a favorite author Sue Monk Kidd and am deeply moved by the story. Such introspection always lead me back to my experiences in South Africa during the apartheid regime that sensitized me even as a child to the injustices of separation and hierarchy. It is such a powerful reminder to me to examine very carefully where in my own thinking the ‘us/them’ paradigm still exists, however subtle it may be— every judgment about the way others are handling their own challenges, every generalized thought or comment. I love the teaching: Do not judge another till you have walked a mile in their moccasins.
Watching a PBS program last night on the year momentous year 1964, reminded me how change comes, in so many ways, through so many people, all responding individually to the changes that are continually happening. My dream is that 2014,50 years later, as women and men, as members of different religious and spiritual traditions, different political persuasions, different ethnic backgrounds, we will all respond to the changes that need to be made to make the world better because we are in it.