It’s an age-old question one that has many perspectives and many answers, but not one definitive answer. Each of us has our own beliefs and answers about these questions based on what we have learned from family, friends, peers, news, experiences, school, religion and more. And while we believe we have the answers they are only the answers we have for ourselves because it suits us. So just don’t try to shove your beliefs down my throat to make me believe what you believe. As Socrates said, I can’t teach you anything, I can only make you listen. Teach me what you know and perhaps I will believe.”

Truly this is not a discussion about “Where Did We Come From?,” although I hope I got your attention. What this is about is “Who Are We?”

I’d ask you to close your eyes and visualize what I’m about to say, but then you couldn’t read this. Visualize the very first person that comes to your mind that you truly love from your heart. It could be anyone from a parent, or child, or spouse, or significant other. It doesn’t matter who this person is. How does that feel? Hopefully you have a huge smile and can’t wait to see them again. Now how would it feel if you lost that person in this very moment?

You see until there is a tragedy when someone we love goes missing for a moment or forever I don’t believe we take enough time to tell him or her how much they mean to us. How much we love them. But life is more than saying the words and having the feeling, it is about acting with good conscience, compassion, understanding and with love. Love that allows you to give without having or expecting to receive anything in return, because in giving to those that you love you are fulfilled.

This is true for every person on this planet, yet somehow we are ready to take someone’s life, sometimes for the most illogical reasons without considering if the roles were reversed how you would feel. We have this unique ability to distance ourselves from our brothers and sisters on this planet and have malice towards them just because we believe differently. Believe it or not we are ALL connected and we are all made of the same stuff, ATOMS! As Mother Theresa once said, “the problem with the world is that we draw our family circle too small.”

Life has so many facets to it and this is only one piece. Yet it is the most important piece of our lives. Let’s go beyond our immediate family and friends. Regardless of your beliefs in a higher power or whether you are religious, or spiritual, or your beliefs are based in science doesn’t matter. None of these matter. If you have watched the movie #TheFifthElement you have some idea of what I’m talking about. Do you remember right in the beginning when one of the aliens says, “Time not important. Only life important.”

Yes Life! Not just yours or mine, but all of life! Then there is LeeLoo much later on who is the Fifth Element, when she says to Korben Dallas, “What’s the use of saving life when you see what you do with it? Yes, we do the most horrific things to one another for no good reason.

We are all the same. Even if you think you are smarter, better looking, healthier, or more financially secure than someone else there will always be someone above you and someone below you. We are always in the middle. I think we can all agree that every human on this planet has the same physical internal structure, and that is our genes, our DNA.

I often refer to our bodies as a “meat suit.” You may relate to it as our birthday suit. It’s what we were born in. Yet we so often set ourselves apart from one another because we have some outward differences. In another line from “The Fifth Element ,” the police asked Korben Dallas, “Are you classified as a human?” and he replies, “Negative, I’m a meat Popsicle.” In a way that is exactly what we are. Our covering makes us look different, however we are all made of the same stuff.

So why is it that we look at one another like we look at the cover of a book and make judgments about what we contain. Just like a book, unless we have at least read the inside cover or the first few pages we will never know if we really like that book or not. The same holds true for getting to know one another. Our outer cover tells us little if anything about the other person. Yet we are so very quick to judge someone before they speak a word. Do you know that we size up a person in the first 10 seconds of meeting them? How many times have you been surprised after having a dialogue?

Let’s face it, we will not agree with everyone about everything and we don’t have to. That we see things differently is okay. That we have differences and may not feel the same way about someone else or something else is also okay. Just don’t let our differences get in the way of understanding and allowing. In our differences we can and often do make life better for others.

I ask you, just like Mother Teresa to expand your family, because in the end we are all family all wanting the same things, which is understanding, compassion, respect, help, love and at least the basics in life, which is food, water and shelter.

Ponder how you treat your fellow human along the road you travel and do your best each day to make friends and not enemies. Go about life with a big Smile and give a little of yourself each day to someone else and get to know them. How you and I make this world a better place depends on all of us, so be the positive change you wish to see in the world.

Blessings and Love to All!