A Vision for Humanity
An aspen grove appears as separate trees of different sizes standing near one another. Yet if you were to go beneath the ground – to dig deeper than the surface – you would see that there is only one root system. Each tree is connected to the other, an interconnectedness serving as the perfect metaphor for how we exist as human beings. We may not think we are connected and part of one another, but it is undeniable that we are. The question is whether or not we can act that way.
The key to ending poverty is no more complicated than this: to live with an understanding of our deep connection to one another.
- Mark Bergel, Ph.D., co-founder, The Shared Humanity Project
Poverty affects all of us, even if we do not feel it on a conscious level.
We are not the isolated individuals we have assumed ourselves to be, and no matter how we may separate from others – perhaps identifying with those who share our religious, ethnic, racial, or social constructs – we are not that small.
When we focus on our differences and restrict our compassion, crises occur. When we focus on our connection to one another, solutions occur.
“And what I assume you shall assume,
For every atom belonging to me as good
belongs to you.”
- Walt Whitman, Leaves of Grass, 1855