We unconditionally love our kids despite their teenage temper or how messy the house gets when they’re around.
We unconditionally love our spouse no matter how often they get on our nerves or often steal the last two french fries from our plate.
We unconditionally love our parents, regardless of how easily they get paranoid every time we don’t answer their first phone call.
We unconditionally love our pets even though they turn the house upside down, destroying our eco-friendly clothes with their paws down the process.
We unconditionally love what we cherish in life. But, what if we could stretch that circle into something broader, like the universe. What if we can unconditionally love all creatures, including our own species.
It sounds almost Utopian to attain such a thing in the real material world, isn’t it?
But what if there was a way to make it happen?
If I told you that I unconditionally love all human beings, that would be the cockiest thing you’d hear anyone say. I don’t know all human beings; accordingly, it is unlikely to love what one doesn’t know, right?
However, our bloody history, our dividing societies, and discriminatory politics have shown that unconditional hate exists. We’ve seen wars bursting between nations or even within the same country. They might have started for geopolitical or economic reasons; but, they were regularly nourished with unconditional hate, propaganda, and discriminatory laws to sustain them…
Somehow, it reminds me of George Orwell dystopia, 1984. When people gathered during the two minutes hate to lash out at someone they didn’t even know, but who were taught well to unconditionally hate.
That being said, if our societies have revealed symptoms of unconditional hate, then why can’t we flip the script? What does it take to harvest an orchard with less and less bad apples? What does it take to love unconditionally?
From personal experience, it’s a process we choose to embrace every single day to rise above and unconditionally love all human beings. There is no secret ingredient, so change doesn’t happen overnight. It takes tiny steps to build a solid foundation, on which you add a few bricks every day like the long term relationship you want it to last.
1- Reshape your perspective
If you had met me 10 years ago, you wouldn’t have met the kind of person who’d write such an article. Yes, I had something to say about everything. I used to label people who were different from me, people who didn’t share my ideas or people who carried an unconventional way of living. I guess I used to judge what I couldn’t understand.
Of course, when you’re a too young in early 2000, things such as compassion, tolerance, and empathy weren’t quite exactly the motto of these times.
Experiences are not revelations unless you want them to. So you may go through a lot of things, but if you don’t take the time to see if there is a lesson to learn, you may just get passed a life-changing moment.
Sometimes, it takes a book, a movie, a documentary, or even a random conversation to make you reconsider your own beliefs. Don’t resist that urge; don’t choose your ego over awareness. We live in a whole wide world, but it may not survive 7 billion egos! I’ve learned to accept that what I stand for isn’t necessarily right, and the other side may not be utterly wrong either. And that is precisely the point, from time to time, there is no right or wrong. It could be the same story, but the way people experience it is entirely a different story. Therefore, I’ve learned to never dismiss what the other side has to say, and that brings me to my second point.
2- Hang out with people from different backgrounds
You don’t need a boarding pass to interact with different cultures. Your friend, your neighbor, your colleague, or even your gym-trainer can carry a cultural heritage different than yours. There is a window of opportunity to discover a whole new world, as long as you don’t turn it into a series of uncomfortable questions. Opening up to another culture is a two-way street; otherwise, it would feel just like an interrogation. It’s about sharing experiences and knowledge.
I remember once going to an office that translates all sorts of official documents. And I remember I was sitting next to a Kurdish refugee, then we started having a chit chat while waiting for our turn. We talked about our experiences abroad (though the idea of being abroad anywhere in our big country, planet Earth, makes less sense everyday). After a shallow talk, he got to tell me about how he made it along with his family to escape from ISIS. I was stunned! I mean, we all hear about this from the news, but when you hear a story from someone in the flesh, that significantly changes the narrative.
The pattern of society is made to divide us. We’re always defining ourselves according to our birthplace, language, spiritual belief, political belief, sexual orientation, and so on... Whereas it takes a simple conversation to make all those labels disappear...
So yes, you can not unconditionally love what you don’t know! Yet, getting to know people with a different background will show you that we may not have the same vision, but in the end, we’re exactly the same creatures with the same quirks, flaws, hopes, and dreams…
3- Travel if you can
Although the Coronavirus outbreak has closed our airports, we all know it is just a matter of time. I think we can all agree that 2020 has taught us a lot about human values. So, when you get the chance to travel again, embrace it, and go beyond the touristy stuff! If the odds are in your favor, consider living for a while anywhere in our big country, planet Earth, far away from where you grew up.
Nothing explains this better than ‘’the leaving parents’ house’’ analogy.
As you grow up in your parents’ house, you go by their rules, you follow their lead, and you absorb their beliefs. And as you finally get to leave the family home, you finally get to see the world per se. You’ll inevitably make mistakes, but you’ll also make your own decisions, and most importantly, you’ll think for yourself.
Traveling is one of the most effective ways to cut the umbilical cord to see our big country, planet Earth as it is. Nothing compares to diving into new cultures! And you might be quite surprised by how akin, our values are, and what we aspire to accomplish in life, even though we don’t express it with the exact same words.
I will always remember how thrilled I get when I find out that another culture with very little in common shares similar proverbs! When they use the same ingredients, only to make a whole different recipe. When we talk about our divergent histories only to discover that they’re not so divergent after all, or when we realize that we feel exactly the same way about meaningful things in life.
With that said, I thoroughly believe that planet Earth is our big country. And regardless of what a DNA testing kit might reveal about my gene pool, it really doesn’t matter. The fruits of a tree have different shapes, colors, and flavors. But in the end, they all came from one seed. That goes for human beings too, ONE big family.
4- The Takeaway:
This is the point where you get to ask yourself this: What makes us different in the end? I’ve met people who I can’t even speak their language, and got along with them maybe even more with whom I share my own tongue. I’ve met people in places far away from home, and they’ve become family. It’s the turning point where humanity becomes a sort of kins, cousins, and relatives, you know one big family.
The more of the big world you’ll see, the more your perspective will shift. The more you surround yourself with people of different backgrounds, the more you’ll see similarity than difference.
So yes, a change of heart doesn’t happen overnight. It takes following your own voice, rather than what the media or anyone else has to say to unconditionally love humanity.
To make it your motto, means fighting prejudice every day. Reject all stereotypes which are well-rooted in our society, even those harmless-like jokes about the Jew or the Chinese. When people start a sentence with the Indian, the Arab, or the Italian are… Make it your motto and stand up for your big family, and take the time to explain why. You never know, you may awaken someone else’s mind…
To conclude
To unconditionally love humanity is way more than a feeling. You may call it a state of mind, inner well-being, a set of values, a standard of living, a philosophy, or a mantra to rise above everything that society is compelling us to believe.
It may be a winding path, but your final destination is a place full of compassion, freedom, equality, and unconditional love.
Share with us 3 things you believe you can do every single day to spread compassion and love unconditionally all human beings.
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Hi Siân,
Wow that’s so true, the media is full of negativity, we need more inspiring stories that remind us of our humanity. Any action that supports human rights around the world deserves support. We are so happy you shared your thoughts. We have a new article available about passports, you should definitely check it out!
Coconutly,
Sara