Explore the possibilities of finding common ground in a divided world.
I've looked at life from both sides now
From win and lose and still somehow
It's life's illusions I recall
I really don't know life...at all.
I used to be entrenched in my opinions.
Like most people, I was programmed inside a family belief system, a school indoctrination system, and a society with clear guard rails that I didn’t dare step (too far) beyond.
But when I began my personal growth journey in 1995, I had a paradigm shift and a whole world opened up.
I began looking with different eyes, and asking different questions.
In the late ‘90s, I was learning about what was then called “third world” debt.
I was volunteering with an organization working on a global campaign to forgive the debilitating debt of the world’s poorest countries.
I began a personal inquiry into how we could come together to do what was workable, what had integrity, rather than divide over who was right and who was wrong.
The local organizer was a caring man with a clear moral compass and a strong sense of justice.
He had a firm stance about the culpability of the then US President in creating the conditions that led to the debt that left millions in abject poverty.
I understood his perspective and agreed with him.
But being right doesn’t help to fulfil on goals with those with different opinions who we want as allies.
As human beings, we are genetically programmed to search for belonging and find our tribe.
We self-divide over everything.
Republicans and Democrats.
Christians and Muslims.
Jets and Sharks.
What draws us to these and other groups is often a deeply felt sense of shared beliefs through which we feel strengthened.
But what weakens our effectiveness and even our experience, is our egoic attachment.
Rather than be empowered by our values and ideas, we are dominated by them.
We lose our ability to think critically outside of our group and what we “know” and become positional and closed, turning ideas into identity.
When this happens, any new information or way of thinking becomes a threat not just to those ideas, but to who we are.
Like every issue today, the issue of debt relief was politicized, and as long as we focused on the side we agreed with, we would never have the needed support from the other.
I asked the organizer, what if this president cancelled the debt, but didn’t get blamed for his part in its creation?
What if he even got credit?
Would it be enough that we accomplished the goal and relieved the world’s poorest people of their debt?
Could you accept that outcome?
He said no.
And therein lies our human weakness.
We’ll cut off our nose to spite our face.
We become so focused on our tribe, our opinion, our side, that we lose sight of the big picture, of what really matters.
There are real enemies in the world.
There are those who would continue to enslave and impoverish us, using our own inherent proclivity to separate ourselves into us and them.
Until we are willing to put aside our differences and focus on our commonality, until we allow ourselves to explore opinions outside our comfort zone, we will continue to be pawns in a deadly game of divide and conquer.
But we can loosen the grip of our egos.
We can let go of our opinions, even for just 2 minutes.
We can take on a momentary beginner's mind and consider new views.
We can even look for similarities with those with whom we vehemently disagree.
There has never been a better time to put aside our assumptions about the "others."
As a starting point, we all want well-being for ourselves and our families.
From there, we can begin to find other commonalities and even shared goals, and discover new ways to build something greater than the illusion of separation.
To paraphrase Sting…
We share the same biology
Regardless of ideology
What might save us, me and you
Is that all people love their children too.
🌟🌟🌟🌟
Where are you unknowingly programmed to sabotage your health and well-being?
Contact Michelle at info@michelleleduccatlin.com for a free consultation to see if 1on1 coaching is a fit for you.
If you are hesitant about your answer... you're probably more honest about that than anything else.