October 29, 2020

As the 2020 election day draws near, we are bombarded with wordiness, Covid-19 expansion and uneasiness, and electoral hopes and fears. Never has a US election been so meaningful because the stakes are so high. Emotions are frazzled.

 

I wanted to offer a peaceful and brief reflection. Thanks to Steven, my insightful and poetic nephew, I found this reflection by the US poet, and African-American civil rights activist, Maya Angelou (1928 – 2014). 

 

Maya Angelou reminds us that we are all people, and so much more alike than different. Imagine the change we could see in the world if we all lived this Human Wisdom. – Jack

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.