Common Ground

Common Ground

This is an Opinion Piece

Source

Mankind (or as Justin Trudeau would say Peoplekind)
I was just thinking this morning about all the different types of people in the world. Wow! So many differences, experiences, religions, colors, languages, I could go on and on. Wow.
Well, that got me to thinking...... We tend to look at the differences amongst us. I meet you and my eyes see you are different. We speak to each other and I can hear the differences. Sometimes we can smell, touch and taste the differences. The diversity of the human race amazes me. Yet, for all our differences we share a common ground.

In todays world it is all too easy to see the differences amongst us and most of us do it all the time...even on an unconscious level. I would like to share a story with you and perhaps you will understand that we share more in common, much more in fact, than our differences.
Many of you will know the story I share.
12,000 - 13,000 years ago much of the world belonged to the Ice Queen. Glaciers up to 2 miles thick(3.2km) covered all of Canada, part of the US, Iceland, Greenland, England, and much of Europe. The ice age started some 1.7 million years ago and "ended" about 12,000 years ago. It pushed populations around the globe.
Then something happened, a massive event that changed us forever.

Source
The Ice Sheet of the Younger Dryas Period

An object came hurtling through space, an asteroid or possibly a comet, and struck the ice sheet near the east coast of Canada. It was such a massive release of energy, the explosion punched a hole into the 2 mile thick sheet of ice. It sent huge chunks of ice thousands of miles and when they came crashing down over North America it obliterated most of the large animals living and that includes humans. It created trillions of gallons of liquid water. The sea levels rose 400 feet and incredibly fast, as much as 30 feet in one day. Now you have to understand that most of the humans lived near the coast as we do today. A 30 foot rise in one day would wash most of these humans away. A rise of 400 feet would drown whole civilizations!
It was the great flood.
Yep! It was a bad time for us.
We lost a lot of our brothers and sisters during this time.
There were only a few humans to start over again.
And we did!

We "multiplied and went forth" as they say. When the ice finally retreated, we moved to these places and "set up camp" there.
We carried the same genes from those few survivors with us. We are, in fact, all related and each of us is a relative of each other.
We all share the same hopes and the same dreams. We all feel love and pain. We all feel the ecstasy and the despair. We all want the best for our children. We all want dignity. We all want a peaceful life. We all want connection to each other.

This is the common ground we all share.
It makes no sense to hate another person. That person is you, your brother and sister, your uncle and aunt, your cousin.
We share so much more in common than we do in our differences.
We may be many different nationalities, religions and customs, but we are all the Human Race. We are Mankind.

So, next time you meet someone that is different, remember, we all stand on this common ground!