Day 196: People.

Guys, there is just a lot of war happening right now. A lot of fighting. A lot of not understanding where other people are coming from.

I, obviously, don’t have any fabulous ideas on how we can reach the elusive idea of world peace, because I don’t see how this world will ever get to a place where we respect one another, even if we are different. Where we love one another, even if we don’t agree. Where we put down weapons and embrace one another as people. As living, breathing, thinking humans.

We’ve heard many times that ‘variety is the spice of life’, and yet, we kill people over their ‘variety’: their religion, the colour of their skin, their political ideologies, their affiliations with certain countries – as if we all have a choice of where we are born.

Sometimes in Canada, where life is pretty good, we forget how much death at the hands of another happens in other parts of the world. Sometimes we turn a blind eye to the news reports, assuming that the media is sensationalizing things again. Guys, 20 people have died in Afghanistan in the last two days via suicide bombers and gun fights. 76 people died in Norway because one person decided it was his duty to fight back against a perceived impending domination of a certain religious group. There is a famine in the Horn of Africa, where a South Somalia political leader is denying the famine is a problem in his area, forcing thousands upon thousands of people to walk many miles in the hot sun, often leaving sick children behind to die, in hopes of being given a bite to eat. Anything to eat. Imagine having to choose between your two children, knowing that one is definitely not strong enough to make it to the camp because they are so malnourished that they cannot even walk. They are so malnourished that they cannot even cry.

Why can we not love each other, or care for each other? Why is it so hard for us to see past titles of what/who people ‘are’ and focus on the fact that they are people?

I don’t have the answers. I can’t claim to have never fallen into the trap of stereotyping/judging/disliking people. But, I can say for myself that I am trying. I am trying my best to love people, even if I don’t understand them. To show people I meet that they have worth, even if the world has told them that they don’t. I’m sure my own personal ‘Love Movement’ won’t bring about world peace, but hopefully it can make even one person feel more loved after having met me.

Share love. Share hugs. Don’t kill people.
It seems like common sense, but we're getting it so wrong.

xo