Humanity is of a universal nature.
Do Eskimos differ from Aboriginals? Are Aboriginals different to Africans? Do Africans differ from Asians? Are Asians different to Arabs? And possibly most telling, are Europeans different to them all?
Assuming all you’re considering is their skin, perhaps they are. Yet how shallow a perception is that? Does the color of our skin, which seldom exceeds a millimeter, reveal the nature of the human being housed within? Is character clearly displayed in bold letters etched upon the surface of one’s flesh?
Not really. Indeed not at all.
However that is precisely what we do. We restrict our consideration of our fellow humans to how they differ from us, instead of how similar we are.
To gaze upon closed flesh, or to dive into an opened soul, those who on the surface swim, never delve the depths, within. #amwriting
— C.G.Ayling (@CGAyling) July 23, 2014
To gaze upon closed flesh, or to dive into an opened soul, those who on the surface swim, never delve the depths, within.
Humanity is motivated by fundamental needs, and those needs are universal across all cultures, regardless of their diversity or distance from one another.
Needs can be separated into physical and spiritual. {Isn’t it strange how our genetic encoding seems to encourage us to divide rather than to bring together?} Physical needs are tangible. They include food, drink, shelter, and survival. Spiritual needs are intangible. They are far more complex, however they are as universal in nature as our physical needs. Our most essential universal spiritual needs include acceptance, dignity, security, hope, understanding, compassion, and love.
Are our physical needs more important than our spiritual ones? It would seem that until we fulfill the physical requirements of our bodies we cannot even consider our spiritual needs. Yet it strikes me this isn’t the case at all. Why? Because a life that lacks these spiritual elements is simply not a life worth living.
Can you imagine living without acceptance? How would you feel if no one accepted you as you truly are? How would you feel if you were forced to live a lie?
Can you imagine living without dignity? How would you feel to be treated as somehow less than human? How would you feel to be beneath consideration?
Can you imagine living without security? How would you feel if every element of your physical and emotional well-being was outside of your control? How would you feel if your very existence was at the capricious whim of persons unknown?
Can you imagine living without hope? How would you feel if you had nothing to hope for? How would you feel if you knew everything you did was in vain?
Can you imagine living without understanding? How would you feel if you didn’t know who you were, or who pulled your puppet strings? How would you feel if you didn’t know your purpose, or the point of life itself?
Can you imagine living without compassion? How would you feel to be treated callously? How would you feel to be treated cruelly? How would you feel if you realized you simply didn’t matter?
Can you imagine living without love? Imagining this may be so difficult as to be virtually inconceivable. Why? Well, love is the glue that binds our spiritual needs into our emotional whole. Knowing we are loved grants us acceptance, dignity, security, hope, compassion, and understanding. And giving others our love ensures their crucial yet intangible spiritual needs are also fulfilled. Love is a circle, that which you give you somehow get back.
Humans are social beings. We don’t need to be told life is better if our fundamental spiritual needs are fulfilled. And yet our nature seems to dictate that we deny others these very things. We want, expect, and even demand them for ourselves, but we’re not willing to freely give them to others. How strange is that behavior? To treat others with acceptance, dignity, security, hope, understanding, compassion, and love costs us nothing, yet we still seem unwilling to do so? How bizarre is it that?
The things we can buy contribute nothing to meet our spiritual needs, yet we hold them as inordinately precious. If we have nobody with whom to share our possessions then everything we possess is worth precisely as much as it contributes toward our spiritual well-being, namely nothing.
How did it come about that we value tangible objects more than we value the intangible elements which make life worthwhile? When did we become so confused as to value things more than we value the intangible elements which are in fact priceless?
Priceless…
Priceless does not mean “of enormous monetary value“.
Priceless means “of such enormous value no monetary amount is adequate compensation for its loss“. Priceless describes the things we hold in our hearts, not the objects we hold in our hands.
Our spiritual well-being is priceless.
Wherever we are, we are spiritual beings. Wherever we are, we are the same. Let us strive to value and treat all humanity equally, for all humans truly do share fundamental needs and those needs are more of the spirit than they are of the flesh.
{P.S. If you’d like to learn when I believe we started to become confused over the value of objects versus the value of feelings, you might start here.}
