At the most basic level, when you strip away all the specifiers, identities, and labels, we are all one thing – human.
As freeing as finding a resonating descriptive label can be, I believe we have gone too far. The homogeneous community we enter, all with those same specifiers, quickly shifts into a divisive cage, and the exits feel one-way, so we never leave – religion, politics, sexuality, to name a few.
But there’s a commonality we often forget that unites all of these varying descriptors: human.
The solution here isn’t to rid ourselves of aspects of who we are, but to hold our differences in one hand and our similarities – our humanness – in the other.
But we have swayed too far, death-gripping our uniqueness so much, and we use that hand to point and ridicule the “others,” and to hold our picket signs in defense. But we forget that our other hand holds our similarities. That those “others” are also human.
So get to know yourself. Proudly share who you are and embrace your unique qualities in one hand. But when you meet someone who doesn’t share all your same labels, may you look at your other hand and reach out in unity and think, “Ah, there’s another human.”
“In most general terms, we are all much more simply human than otherwise…” – Psychologist Harry Stack Sullivan
Warmly,
Kylie Larson, MA, LPC
9 With the tongue we praise our Lord and Father, and with it we curse human beings, who have been made in God’s likeness. 10 Out of the same mouth come praise and cursing. My brothers and sisters, this should not be.
James 3:9-10 NIV
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