Metaphors For Life (http://www.metaphorsforlife.com)
We live in an era and culture rich in diversity. In few other places can
one walk a typical city street and find foods that came from
everywhere, Birmingham to Bangkok; music that originated in Nashville
or Namibia, clothing from Paris to Pakistan. We are blessed with
wide-ranging ideas from so many sources, ways of being and relating that
come from a variety of cultures and times. Our history is redolent with
the
fragrance of human experience; and our prayer is that our future will be
just as full.
You could say with some justification that we're asked to worship that
diversity, especially here on California's North Coast. ``Celebrate
Diversity,'' multi-colored bumperstickers proclaim! Our local public
radio station self-identifies as ``Diverse Public Radio.'' All our focus
seems drawn to the differences between us and "other," as if only by
highlighting our contrasts can we appreciate who and what we are as a
race.
And yet, We Are One.
Paradox.
Many peoples. One planet. Many cultures. One race. Many agendas. One
future. We are melodies, harmonies, and rhythms, all One in the grand
symphony of our racial experience. We celebrate the Divine in a
plethora of constructs, yet we're all part of that same Divinity,
expressing our Divine nature as creatively and, well, as
diversely as we can.
To live within the paradox with grace and elegance, we must learn to
balance that which our five senses perceive with what we know in our
hearts is true: That our seeming diversity is but the shining of many
facets on a single, priceless jewel, ever-scintillating against the
lush, verdant backdrop of a planetary stage. What we have created
here, the sacred and the profane, is unique. What we have done here,
the All and One of us, could never be repeated. How wondrously,
breathlessly precious that is! And yet, it's but a single drop in a
vast ocean of Universal experience, hardly noticeable except from a
very local perspective.
Paradox.
It's been said that God can be found in every paradox. Wrapping one's
mind around a pair of seeming opposites leads to a greater
understanding of the One Source from which the two derived. It is more
than an intellectual exercise, it is a spiritual discipline that
drives one into the very heart of paradox, and thus into the very
heart, and mind, of the One Source, known by diverse names...
So, yes, celebrate diversity! The vast assortment of experience we've
co-created shall never be repeated in all existence. While you're at
it, celebrate that we are all busily, enchantingly, universally,
individually, diversely -- ONE!
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Copyright 2002 - 2004 Alesia Matson, All Rights Reserved
Rev. Dr. Matson writes and teaches extensively about the contemplative
arts and modern mysticism. You can receive free excerpts from her new
book "7 Mysteries: Contemplative Arts For The Modern Mystic" right in
your email box simply by sending an email to: ca@[EMAIL PROTECTED]
Or, visit
http://www.metaphorsforlife.com/0401-free.php
to find out more about
her work, and sign up for a free email seminar on the contemplative
arts.
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