Input From a Larger View

As I travel, I am hit with a larger view.

Everyday, ordinary people going about their ordinary lives are not living in fear.

People of color, white people, business people, working-class people, students, people walking along the streets, riding the metro, are not living in fear.

There is camaraderie in the cafes where it is clean and busy and purposeful and there is consideration of everyone there.

A narrow view knows only itself, its opinions and its experiences.

A larger view, because of its larger experiences, knows more than itself.

I am so grateful to have left an area where the narrow, limited view is celebrated.

I am so grateful and comforted to be part of the celebration of a larger view.

I am so grateful to have had the opportunity to work with students from all over, even while I lived in my original place.

My precious students came from homes where many different languages were spoken, many different cultures of cooking were eaten, and many different types of clothing cultures were worn.

I was the lucky recipient of these impressions and friendships and trust as I taught their children.

I can only hope that everyone has the opportunity to increase and expand their view, with or without the experiences which would cause this to happen.

i can only hope that through self-eduction and interest the narrow, limited view would be abandoned.

I can only hope that the deep cultural feelings of fear of the “other”, the “stranger” would become convinced of the beauty of every precious person on the earth.

My take on it is that everyone comes from a family of some kind.

Whether they have been able to grow up in a traditional family or not, that is where I start.

We all come from families which want the best for us.

All families want safety and goodness and well-being for themselves and their children.

That is enough for us to have in common to build trust.

Let governments fight it out if they must, but let us see each other in families and let us treat each other as friends through a larger view.

© 2019 Kathryn Hardage

www.sharedglobalvision.blogspot.com