OPPORTUNITY CAFE

Get it.   We are interdependent.   Economically and spiritually, we are a chain.  A world of links, one pulled by the other.  And yes, the USA is the mother link, economically.  Now.  That will not always be the case.  Change is the nature of life.  Today, the USA.  Tomorrow, perhaps, China.  The next day, perhaps, Jamaica.  Or Brazil.  Or Dubai.  Or Cuba.  What is clear without a doubt, is that we are all linked together.  For the well being of one, we must root for and support the well-being of the other.

One country gives hope.  Another gives values.  Another-  history, perspective.  Like children in a classroom anywhere, some countries and people have more of one positive attribute than another, but all have value to add to the whole.   Traits aside, in and of themselves, all are equal in value.  None is “better than” another.

When the USA experiences difficult times economically, there is a world of suffering.  Like a stone dropped in a pool of water, the ripples extend. When the ancient artifacts of a museum in Persia are pillaged, or a 15th century mosque is destroyed, the loss can not be seen, and may even be unknown to most, yet is experienced world-wide:   A loss to humankind which will never be fully recognized but which will impact, with absence of the conveyance of knowledge that could have been, as completely as if that loss had tangible substance of impact.

The child killed by abortion today in the world’s western hemisphere might one day have borne a great grandchild who would have identified the cure for a plague yet to come in the Middle East.  The child starved to death in Africa today as a result of reduced humanitarian aid following an act of hatred might have one day borne a great grandchild who would have identified a new plant protein adequate to feed the world.   Or maybe that starved child would have achieved it herself.

We are all linked- our destinies entwined, our actions impacting all others, as well as ourselves.  Whether a nation or person is perceived as “one up” is transient and passing.   One person- one nation- possesses strengths that exceed those of another- in certain qualities.  Yet in the end, all persons and nations are of equal value.  Like children.

We are all connected.  Linked in a humanity that involves frailty, error, and the magnificence of capacity for forgiveness and achievement of creative excellence.  Linked in a chain of interdependence where what is good for one is good for all, what harms one harms all.   All linked under one God, who is who He is, regardless of what our tiny minds choose to believe, and regardless of which minutiae of dogma we choose to obsess on.  In the end, He will still be who and what He is, whether or not we war over it in a vain attempt to establish our tiny view as the only view.

Evil is easy.  Lazy.  There are a million ways to get rich if one is willing to sacrifice right values.   Likewise, there are innumerable ways to establish supremacy (and serve vanity) through violent means.  Those who choose destruction over creation pervert the blessing of life for the sake of vanity.

We are linked.  Interdependent.  For individuals, and for nations, the only route to strengthening is the strengthening of others.  The only route to completion of this plane of existence with pure conscience and absence of vanity is to choose the harder road:  channeling energies and creative potential to support global peace and prosperity.

One world, under God (however you may perceive Him), with liberty and justice for all.  Not one world government.  Just one world, beautifully interdependent, folding into itself the unique goodnesses that each individual and nation contibutes to the whole.  It is the harder, right way.