A Pope Cares--Will You?

to dialogue together, to shorten the distance between us, to strengthen our bonds of brotherhood
— http://www.nytimes.com/2015/10/08/opinion/the-popes-subversive-message.html?ref=topics
Unity is often confused with uniformity; with actions, feelings and words which are all identical,” Pope Francis said. “This is not unity, it is conformity.

What are the bonds we share, the ones divided by racism? Perhaps our common humanity? Perhaps our common experience of longing for the transcendent? Perhaps our common home, planet Earth?  Perhaps...dare I write this, the reality that we know not the origin of life, any and every life? And perhaps the possibility that each and every person alive may well have a still invisible spirit or as Pope Francis would call it a soul? 

Our physicists are claiming most of the universe is made of something we utterly cannot identify, measure precisely or manipulate in any manner--dark matter and dark energy are the names given to this unknown. Is there any scientific reason to believe this may not be inside us individually as well? I think not given we have neutrinos, whatever they may be streaming through us constantly. Why not a soul we still cannot identify but is equally real as well? To assume our medical science is complete is ridiculous and I say this as one who has seen life and death working in operating rooms for years. A beating human heart is the most breathtaking sight most people who have seen one will admit exists in life. I write this as a mother who, while experiencing the miracle of birth recognizes that in each child I birthed that same utterly unexplainable reality thrummed. We humans share this unity with every heartbeat and through every living breath.

Who or what is the reality we have named God, in all the forms, under all guises that support life for all we may never understand. That does not mean there is no Creator. For all the knowledge of science, all the equations, all the math there is one factor science itself admits to not ever identifying: where and how the first of the first of the first of the smallest of the smallest of the smallest particle originated and began its journey. Pope Francis seems to recognize this. He calls us to the unity of our shared mystery of life.

Our shared home.&nbsp;

Our shared home. 

Race, the lie that somehow people are different because of different external appearances makes a lie of our humanity. It is time to recognize, identify and stop the lie. Racism and the harm it causes which arises from the lie of race is NOT a game. It never was. But yesterday is over, we only have today, this moment, this instant and we can use today to move forward, to build change. I do not support racism. If you also reject racism what are you doing today to build change so tomorrow we are moving closer to removing racism from our sports teams and their official endorsed identities? They are one of the last places America still teaching racism to our children.