Welcome to Unifying Culture

Unifying Culture is a blog that’s sole purpose is to discuss discussions. The challenge from which our world society suffers is our difficulty in valuing one another’s beliefs, traditions, and systems. This blog will attempt to honestly and respectfully contemplate how we got here and how we can move forward together.  There may be no more than a few words, a quote, or as much as a lengthy essay.

This candle represents my hope for a future in which our culture and society grow through thoughtful, supportive debate by various people with diverse points of view, and to prevent division among brothers and sisters.

Listening with Purpose

Plenty of communications textbooks, relationship self-help tomes, and well-meaning friends have a huge amount of guidance regarding how to listen effectively.

Two things are necessary for good listening:

1. Understanding that we are all connected at an intimate, spiritual level;

2. Listening to the speaker… any speaker… as though the person is the most precious family member or friend in your life at a crucial crossroads.

By listening with these thoughts in mind, we have placed the speaker in the prized position of “person of elevated value.” This helps us focus on the speaker in the most effective manner possible.

When responding, it helps to remember that we love that person, whether we know it or not. When we speak with someone we love, we are honest, respectful, and generous. Considering we all share some level of DNA, it is easy for us to believe that we are all connected at the most intimate way.

Ultimately, we are affected by the emotions of the moment, the eventual connection we have with someone. These may cause us to forget the deeper connections; however, as we train ourselves to communicate in this vibrant way, it will become second nature.

Our Sameness

“We all live with the objective of being happy; our lives are all different and yet the same.”  ~Anne Frank (1929-1945), Diarist

Anne Frank was like many young teen girls in Europe and everywhere else on the planet.  She went to school, had family and friends, and had dreams.  Even in her youth and eventually in her fragile, dangerous environment, she understood that we all simply want to claim our own happiness.  She saw beyond the horrors of her life to recognize that each person desires to have his or her dreams come true.

It is perhaps in Anne’s vision that we can find unity.  If we recognize that it is not only the person who stands with us in our beliefs, but also the person who opposes us who has hope for happiness, then we begin to see our commonality.  We find that inasmuch as our opponent may seem to stand in the way of our happiness, so must we be standing in the way of theirs.  From this awakening, we can begin to sow the seeds of compassion for all people.

The question stops being about how the other person can change to make us happy and becomes, “How can we work together so that we can both get as close as possible to our dreams of happiness?”  This is a constructive and positive way to begin our discussions.

Thank you, Anne, for your vision.  Although you did not live to see all of your dreams for happiness fulfilled in many ways, through your words, you have inspired many of us for generations to find ours.  Shalom.

Unify and Grow, Not Divide and Conquer

“Pit race against race, religion against religion, prejudice against prejudice. Divide and conquer! We must not let that happen here.”  ~Eleanor Roosevelt

Eleanor Roosevelt, our dynamic first lady in the first half of the 20th Century, understood that the concept of “divide and conquer” assumed several things:

1.  Not everyone is equal;

2.  There had to be winners and losers;

3.  Given a particular idea, situation, or belief, compromise was impossible.

Mrs. Roosevelt believed differently.  In her work to support her husband’s New Deal, in the formation of the United Nations, the development of child labor laws, and many other important cultural and governmental developments, she saw that as a nation and as a world, we had the power to work together for the greatest good.  Everyone is equal.  Everyone could be winners.  Compromise was always possible with intelligent, compassionate people involved in the development of a resolution to even the most difficult challenges.

What would she say if she could see the politics of today?  Would she say that we have found our way to building a national community?  Would she marvel at our ability to listen to one another and work together to build a strong, sensitive, and wise nation?  Not likely.  I suspect she would be shocked at the level of partisanship, extreme religiosity, and utter lack of civility among America’s children.  She might be saddened that we have lost our way in our attempt to create one great nation rather than the fractured microcultures that exist in our country in the 21st Century.

I never knew Mrs. Roosevelt because she died when I was only three.  I have read her story and learned the lessons of her important impact on our country.  Of this much I am certain: Mrs. Anna Eleanor Roosevelt would speak strongly to all of us about how important it is to end the divisiveness in the United States, and the expanse of anguish we, along with many other nations, cause with our wars and irresponsible economic and cultural processes.

We must unify and grow our nation immediately.  This process must begin today, not at the next election, or on some future date.  We must take an active stance against divisiveness.  We must claim our right as Americans to insist that our elected leaders take personal responsibility for their actions and beliefs.  If they cannot find their way toward unity, then we must require that they stand aside to make room for the people who will.