Friday, March 13, 2009

A Question

What do you think is the most universal of all human experience?

And, do you think that it is uniting/divisive/both?

(Of course, all we have are our own thoughts and the thoughts of others, but I'm curious what you think about this.)

10 comments:

Anonymous said...

death

Micah Andrew Hasty said...

life.
physical in that without it we can't experience anything else.

life.
spiritual in that without it we can't experience anything else fully.

the line/the fragment said...

Death.
Yes, in the sense of "WE ALL DIE." and so we can all relate when buried or burned or forgotten.
We can also relate to death in our collective fear and refusal of it. As a culture we spend a lot of time, money and energy on cosmetics, glorifying young hotties and doing all we can to stay alive and beautiful.

However, I believe our collective death brings us something more...
I believe that death unifies us in that it connects us to suffering. Also as Christians death brings us salvation.
Not only the death of Christ, but the death of ourselves.
"You must die to yourself...pick up your cross...I must become less so Christ can become more...etc.etc."

The acknowledgement of suffering and pain and death provides us with empathy and compassion and love for others. We can seek justice and care for those around the world, who we do not know, as we are related in Christ's love and also in death.

jeramy sossaman said...

sickness or death. the great equalizer. it unites and divides...

ashdown said...

well i was going to say love, but as i sit and think more, i will say pain. because i think it is more uniting then love - everyone has experienced some sense of pain and brokenness, and i think voicing that and sharing that with others is the most powerful connection humans can have.

DRO said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
DRO said...

breath...

the experience alone is neither... it is neutral...

but our relationship to it can unite or divide....

Those with whom contentment rests with breath have the power to unite the world in their generous embrace.

Those with whom longing rests between the breaths run the danger of dividing the world in their pursuit of more and more and more than simple life giving breath.

Sigrun said...

Birth - new life
Cycle of life

Unknown said...

Our involuntary involvment with Nature. I can only imagine what Nature thinks our us.

Anonymous said...

suffering: it is what creates the strongest connections, develops deep character that draws others into our story and provides encouragement to others in their own struggles. it is also the source of our relational disfunction. We seek to hide from others our wounds, protect ourselves from further damage, or inflict pain in order to numb/mitigate our own. The strongest bridge to join our souls appears the most treacherous to step upon.