We’re all connected somehow. For some reason we think we’re separate from one another. Every person you meet, intentionally or not, has some purpose in your journey in life. If we continue to live in disconnect, we will never understand one another and our humanness.

Yes, we are human. Sometimes, it’s difficult to fathom that we’re all actually human. Thinking back throughout history and in our world today, there have been brutal dictators, relentless murderers, and power-hungry politicians/monarchies. Are those people human? Or, do they succumb from the inner human self of greed, jealousy, and selfishness? We all have a choice: to be a good human or to be a destructive human. We are all imperfect, that’s a given. We are not immune to darkness and evil. However, we are capable of rising above.

And then, there are the abusers. There are people who use their power to dominate over others, whether it be through physical, sexual, psychological, or emotional abuse to those who are vulnerable. Are they human? Or, have they suffered some sort of torment of their own in which they chose to become abusive as a means to “rise above”?

What can we do, as a greater society, to remove the disconnect and to understand that we are all human? How do we empathize with those who have committed such grave atrocities to the world and others? What are our options? Do we have any?

Big questions cannot be answered without a larger dialogue between us all. It starts with you and I. Who am I? Who are you? What do we in common? What is love, and how do I love? What is empathy, and how can I learn to use it in the most difficult of situations and circumstances?

It pains me that the world continues on the path of darkness. It seems, from personal observation, that we focus on power, money, and opportunity at all any expense. What will this world be after 20 years? Will it continue to suffer? It seems it will without the remedy of forgiveness, hope, and empathy.

I am human. You are human. We have billions of humans on this earth. Let’s live as humans with more light than darkness, and more love than hate, more forgiveness than spite, more growth than decline.

As Margaret Mead has said:

Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful, committed citizens can change the world; indeed, it’s the only thing that ever has.