Multitudes

Multitudes

We contain multitudes. And yet we are one. It’s a strange paradox. I’m struck by two quotes I found recently. The first is from Winona LaDuke:

"The first thing I am is a person… But people either relate to you as an Indian or as a woman. They relate to you as a category."

How true that is. It’s part of human nature to find those categories that we can relate to (or not), and to put one another in those categories - to “one” people, without recognizing their “multitudes.”

Here’s the second quote, by Carl Rogers:

"People are just as wonderful as sunsets if I can let them be. In fact, perhaps the reason we can truly appreciate a sunset is that we cannot control it. When I look at a sunset, I don’t find myself saying, ‘Soften the orange a little on the right hand corner, and put a bit more purple along the base, and use a little more pink in the cloud color.’ I don’t do that. I don’t try to control a sunset. I watch it with awe as it unfolds. I like myself best when I can appreciate my staff members, my son, my daughter, my grandchildren, in this same way."

I love that image. To let people just be who the are without trying to categorize them. We contain multitudes and yet we are one. One way we put it as a community: Many different beliefs, one loving community. Unity in Diversity. This, I think, is our greatest task - to recognize all of it.

With love,
Rev. Sian


Rev. Sian Wiltshire is Orange Coast Unitarian Universalist Church's minister. Please feel free to reach out and say hello! She can be reached by email, revsian@ocuuc.org, or by church phone at (714) 556-2882 (x302).

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