The tragic murder of all these young, beautiful beings in Orlando makes all the talk of love and fear, of guns and protection, of sameness and difference urgent and real. Only the diverse forms of a nature survive and even more, thrive. And so, we are at a crossroads in the human journey. At the same time, we are both on the verge of self-destructing and on the verge of breaking into a new form of community. What we choose at this point will make all the difference.
But under these important choices, no one in the history of the world has chosen how they are born, any more than an orchid chooses its color or the degree to which it opens. And no one chooses if they are straight or gay or bisexual or transgender. We root in the earth and grow into the light and open completely if given enough time. Yet the Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, and Transgender (LGBT) community has been demonized, criminalized, and persecuted for centuries.
When I stop to take in what all these brave souls have endured and accomplished, when I stop to put down my assumptions and conclusions, when my hands are empty and my heart starts to open—I am returned to our natural kinship with each other, no matter our path. Then I can see the man wandering the streets, not as homeless but as a human being without a home. Then I can see the one just out of prison, not as a convict but as someone who made a mistake. Then I can see the one born with both sexes, not as an aberration that needs to be pruned into male or female but as a rare and beautiful flower in the human garden.
When I dare to listen, not knowing what I will hear, the things that parade between us evaporate and it’s just us, breathing the same air. At times like this, I’m reminded that no one knows what being alive is like or where this life will lead, and that any sense of what’s normal is just an illusion.
The courage we need worldwide is the resolve to be truthful and vulnerable about our existence; no matter how different our experience may seem. When we encounter difference, we need to resist the fear that wants to make everything we meet just like us. Such sameness is crippling. Instead, we need to open our histories and listen, so we can be made whole by the parts of life that we are lacking.
Today, being a global citizen requires the courage to stay truthful about our existence and the courage to be touched and shaped by the faces of humanity we meet and help along the way.
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