More Alike...

I truly enjoyed watching the Opening Ceremony of the 2016 Olympics in Rio! What an inspiration - seeing all of those athletes and countries come together... A commercial that keeps airing during the games features sections of a poem by Maya Angelou that has really stuck with me. The complete version is printed here.

Human Family

I note the obvious differences

in the human family.

Some of us are serious,

some thrive on comedy.

Some declare their lives are lived

as true profundity,

and others claim they really live

the real reality.

The variety of our skin tones

can confuse, bemuse, delight,

brown and pink and beige and purple,

tan and blue and white.

I've sailed upon the seven seas

and stopped in every land, 

I've seen the wonders of the world,

not yet one common man.

I know ten thousand women

called Jane and Mary Jane,

but I've not seen any two

who really were the same.

Mirror twins are different

although their features jibe,

and lovers think quite different thoughts

while lying side by side.

We love and lose in China,

we weep on England's moors,

and laugh and moan in Guinea,

and thrive on Spanish shores.

We seek success in Finland,

are born and die in Maine.

In minor ways we differ,

in major we're the same.

I note the obvious differences

between each sort and type,

but we are more alike, my friends,

than we are unalike.

We are more alike, my friends,

than we are unalike.

We are more alike, my friends,

than we are unalike.

- Maya Angelou

"Olympic Opening Ceremonies - A journey through time"

I am breathing unity and human camaraderie as if they were air this week. With media highlighting our differences lately, it is positively nourishing to remember how alike we all really are.

Namaste,

T