In Our Own Image

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• Why is it that we are always comparing ourselves to others? Why are we always critical of others, always making judgments, always looking for what should be, for what should not be; always looking for what is "wrong" -- or what is not "right" with the other?

• When we see the other as different, why is it that that difference is always based on ourselves, on how we are, or what we are?

• Our tendency is to re-create the other into how we are, into what we are -- to re-create the other into our own image -- or even, into our own image of what is ideal.

• We often ask, "Why can't you be like this, or like that?" "Why can't you be like me?"

• The problem here is that this attitude is but one step closer from feeling superior, one step closer to feeling above the other, one step closer to discriminating the other, one step closer to imposing on the other, one step closer to dehumanizing the other.

• On the other hand, if we stop looking for what is different between us and the other -- and stop highlighting those differences -- and instead, start respecting those differences, start respecting diversity, cultural as well as individual diversity, then, we would be one step closer to resisting violence, we would be one step closer to nonviolence, one step closer to humanizing the other.

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