Sunday, April 7, 2013

Unity Amidst Diversity

I am stirred by the notion of diversity, especially as it applies to planet Earth, our home. A few days ago, one of my Facebook friends posted a link on my wall about Ecuador selling its Rainforests to China. It caught my attention for a couple of reasons. Ecuador is a small country and home to Touch the Jungle (TTJ), a cause I have been supporting with my birthday gifts for a while now. It turns out that TTJ is not directly involved, as Apuela is on the north-western slopes of the Andes, while Yasuni National Park is in the Amazon side of the country, east of the Andes. Nonetheless, Ecuador is a small country and the political and the economic issues are all part of the same struggle. Because of my interest in TTJ, I am concerned with Yasuni.

The second reason is that the Yasuni National Park has been said to be the most biodiverse region on Earth. Whether or not this is the case is immaterial. What is important is that biodiversity is both an essential feature of our planet and crucial to our own survival as a species.

What blows me away about this is that in the small local community of Mayflower, Arkansas we are faced with exactly the same issues of biodiversity in the wetlands surrounding Lake Conway and the competing values of affordable energy that led to a catastrophic oil spill. Half a world away, different life forms, different cultures, different politics and different economies, but the same issues.

In other words, as different as we are, we are all in this together. Sometimes we don't want to accept that fact, but it is true.

Once in a while, an art form comes along that helps us experience deeply what is otherwise difficult to grasp. Playing for Change is one of these. The whole idea is mind boggling. What this group does, essentially, is create a unified visual and auditory experience from diverse artists from around the world. Incredible, absolutely incredible! In my opinion the video is just as important as the sound track, probably more so. There are so many great singles, but my favorite is What a Wonderful World. We are wonderfully, ecstatically diverse, but we are indeed One. What a One-derful world!

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