If I am to
authentically hang on to my pluralism, if I want to be true to my belief that
we should each be allowed our beliefs, I must allow you to believe what you
want, even if you want me to believe something else. I must remember
that it is what we do with our beliefs that makes a difference in the
world. In some important way, it doesn’t really matter what we
believe, whether in G!d or in stardust, or in fairies. We all come from the
same place, we all came into being on this planet. We have the same carbon and
hydrogen atoms in each of us as in the stars and the crust of the Earth. We all
are born and we all die. What does matter is what we do and what we
say. Our words and our actions have impact. And there will be points on
which we will never agree, for if you kill me, it is because it is OK with you,
but if I kill you, it surely will only be OK with me.
And so, let us
look to the Big Picture and to the details. Let us see the world through an
ecological lens – the lens of relationships among organisms and their
environment.[1] Let us figure out how to
be Zusya, how to be ourselves. Let us ask ourselves: Who am I? What are my
gifts? What is unique about me? What is universal? What is my relationship to
my environment? How am I separate? How am I connected?
When I look up at
the stars, I know that I am small. I know that the same stars shine above the
heads of 7 million other people. I know that the Universe goes on and on and on
for such a great time and distance that it feels infinite even if it is not. I
know that we were both born. I know that we both will die. I know that you and
I are more similar than we are different. I know that I want to choose, each
and every day, to hold love in my heart and not hate. I know that the world is
good.
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