"They say you can never really know a stranger. I think that's wrong. I think the examples in my life and many people I've spoken to, there have been profound acts where seeing another person really does happen.
And out of that - if we live in a dehumanizing age, then seeing another human being is the most practically effective way to fight back dehumanization.
We live in a time where people are not seeing each other. It's a brutalizing time. And the natural urge is to cower, close in, be protective. I understand that urge.
But the people I admire at this time, are the defiant humanists who say: I will not be calloused over, I will not put up the barriers, I will not declare war on the others,
I will be defiant enough to do the essential humanistic act:
Which is to try and understand another's point of view.
To try to acknowledge you as a person worthy of respect, investigation and curiosity.
And it's not naive to leave with respect, it's not naive to leave with trust,
it's not naive to leave with curiosity.
To me, it's the most practical and effective thing we can do,
in a time of brutal dehumanization."
- David Brooks
This excerpt from David Brooks' latest speech caught me.
Everything we do with Voices Unleashed sits on this spectrum of seeing others in their fullness.
It is in seeing the other where the birthplace of connection resides. It is here where we find the antidote to polarization. It is here where belonging happens - not because of shared ideologies - but belonging in simply being.
I look at the political and societal landscape today and witness the cracks, the fabric of togetherness ripping, and I - and a community of thousands worldwide with me - will not stand for it.
For every disease there is a cure. The cure for a dehumanizing world is in the revealing of our fullness and the willingness to see the other in theirs.
Yours in the good fight,
Roel
If you feel called, tell me about a time you last felt seen.
What was it like? And what was unlocked because of that moment?
This is how I see others:
The Church of the Moment
I stop and wave to the driver
Before I cross the street.
To pick up some provisions,
And chat a while with the clerks.
Susan comes to assist me
to find an item I'm missing
As I thank her she laughs
and flashes a smile.
The small things we share
In an instant of time
A smile and a handshake
my, you're sure looking fine
Could the patterns we trace
In a single day's run
Embroider a cloth of a
Righteous congregation
Could a matter of seconds
In life's endless movement
Open the door
To a church of the moment.
These casual encounters
can light daily candles.
Close up the distances
warm up our souls.
A stranger offers help,
a gesture of kindness.
So direct and sincere
flashes of grace
The small things we share
In an instant of time
Won't you please have this seat
The pleasure's all mine
These connections we form
While we go on our ways
Greeting folks old and new as we
Pass through our days
Just a matter of seconds
In life's endless movement
Can open the door
To a church of the moment.
Malcolm McKinney 2022
"It is in seeing the other where the birthplace of connection resides." Yowza!! This nails it.
And you follow up with "It is here where belonging happens - not because of shared ideologies - but belonging in simply being".
Excellent words and powerful statements. Amen, good Sir.