Have you ever noticed that whenever people are exposed to a common experience – one that strikes them all the same way in the flash of a moment – that they bond together in unity?
All too often, it’s off the heels of some sort of tragedy:
A death in the family… A natural disaster… Something that makes everyone stop to realize the fragility of life, without the luxury of being able to think about the implications.
I remember it happening one day when I was in college.
Being that I had an 8am class on Tuesdays, I knew I could sleep in until 7:53 and still get there on time. That’s the beauty of going to college in a small town… Everything’s close enough to get to within a matter of minutes.
On this particular Tuesday, however, my phone rang at 6:59. At first, I let it go to voicemail, figuring that anyone who knew me knew that I wasn’t going to answer. But, when it rang a second time, my eyes snapped open.
Something was wrong.
I rolled out of bed, stumbled toward the hallway, and checked the caller ID…
It was Chelsea.
“Hello,” I answered with a groggy rasp in my voice.
“We’re under attack!” she exclaimed.
My brain couldn’t quite grasp what she was saying… For a moment, I thought I was still dreaming.
“What are you talking about? Gunnison’s under attack? Why?! By who?”
“No! Turn on your TV,” she replied. I could hear the panic in her voice.
So, I ran down the hall, toward my closet-sized living-room, waking up more and more with every step. After a brief, albeit frantic search for the remote control, I flipped on the TV just in time to see the second plane hit…
It was 7:03 on 9/11/2001.
The rest of the day flew by in a haze, as the entire nation, galvanized together under a common banner, felt a common bond grow between fellow countrymen.
“These colors don’t run” became the battle cry across every city, town, and back-country dirt road in America.
For a moment, we were all one.
Yet eventually, that unity fractured.
With the passage of time, we invented and attached narratives to the tragedy. Beliefs that helped us make sense of what the event meant to us, in our own, individual experience.
Do you think that’s just a part of human nature?
Do we always band together in groups based on common beliefs?
Is it natural for us to draw lines in the sand, separating us from other groups who have adopted different beliefs?
Or is it possible to maintain a sense of unity with our fellow man on an ongoing basis?
It’s a curious topic to be sure.
In the wake of 9/11, we, as a people, certainly developed a myriad of beliefs to help us make sense of what had happened…
Some say that our response led to the biggest blunders in foreign policy that the country has ever seen. Others say that it led to the defeat of terrorism, along with a positive American influence in a volatile part of the world.
I’ve heard people argue that we gave away our rights in the months and years that followed; the result of our own legislation. I’ve also heard it said that those same laws are what led to unparalleled safety and security for the American people.
Indeed, whatever can be said has been said, no matter how diametrically opposed it might be to what others might believe… Even if they were once unified together in the actual moment.
It truly highlights the point – that we’re all inherently different from one another on just about every level one can possibly imagine. Those differences are evident in how we think, feel, interact, and choose to live.
In fact, I’d go so far as to say that the only time we’re truly ‘one’ with each other is when we’re deprived of the ability to think.
When something so shocking takes place that the only thing we can possibly agree on – and the only thing that truly matters in that moment – is that we’re all existing together at that same time, in that same place.
It is the phenomenon of ‘being’ that unites us.
So, it’s with that backdrop that I’m going to make the claim, and say that there’s only one universal truth that every person on the planet can agree to…
That universal truth is this:
We exist.
Now, how we should exist, and why we exist are matters of debate. They’re also what cause the fractures of any society.
Therefore, that’s the direction we’ll want to go in our quest for finding ‘center’.
But, the fact that any one of us exists should not be debatable without doing some rather entertaining acrobatics.
If you’d like to give it a whirl, be my guest!
Otherwise, to anyone who has read this entire article, I appreciate you! Furthermore, I appreciate your interest in the topic. As a new author, striving to find ways of connecting with people in meaningful ways, I’m very interested in your thoughts, especially as the Dantian Project moves forward.
Cheers to the search for truth!
The Dantian Project seeks to find common truths in modern issues. Please like, share, comment and subscribe to help the conversation reach as many eyes as possible! If you’d like to become a contributor, visit the submission guidelines page.
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