We are slipping into a time when it is becoming easy to define “us” versus “them” and elevating our belief that “us” matters more – however we define the “us.” Which is fine if we are debating the core values that define us as a society. But we aren’t. The agenda of the polarities has entered mainstream consciousness. How ironic considering our mainstream has, for example, welcomed 190 countries of origin as immigrants to Canada in 2015.

This dynamic is most overt when filtered by valuation of what someone says or does by colour of skin, nationality, religion, sexual orientation, and on and on in the fine hairs of division. But at a community level we also need to come to grips with our tolerance of superiority complex that has equally antagonistic manifestation in the angry who shout the loudest and bully the decision making agenda on behalf of the silent and un-engaged majority. Issues develop for and against camps without any openness to opposing viewpoint. In diving to the bottom, we lose the opportunity to work together to aim high.

Feeding this divide to conquer dynamic is a vacuum of leadership whose role it is to rudder the moral ground we stand on, our lack of trust in institutions with associated eroding bedrock of systems and structures, and the easy gait of only embracing the superficial of things in our societal short attention span.

Splintering into a kaleidoscope of pieces, we have arrived at an intersection.

Down one road is a darker world where progress is debated on the quicksand of anger and division. There are clear winners and losers. When those who lose out on opportunity and lose hope become great enough in number, we open the door to conflict in all its forms.

At the intersection, the other road offers no utopian panacea, but is shaped by a more hopeful and optimistic perspective that shapes actions. Down this road, progress is measured by our ability to build bridges. Here, we realize our real power as a humanity lies in exchange of ideas, collaboration, creativity and innovation, and solution-seeking middle ground. We flourish in the absence of anger, blind to everything but an appreciation for the value of the lives of other people and the legacy we are leaving for our children and grandchildren.

It’s OUR choice where we go next. But who is “our”? It’s the 60% of the middle of the societal bell curve that believes in simple things: a job, providing for family, happiness, peace, kindness, generosity, empathy….compassion. All the groundwork for a life well lived.

And what should “our” do now?

Our middle of the bell curve needs to reclaim our collective moral compass. We need to assume individual responsibility for that by speaking up and out. We need to demonstrate our inner courage to drown out the voices of division. We need to vote for the voices of reason. With a leap of trust, we need to invest in governance with our personal energy as a matter of constructive attitude, belief, and behaviour. We need to simplify decision making to solving problems and find compromise. We need to do the small things that grow the bedrock of a civil and caring society. Coach, volunteer, plant flowers, or get involved in politics; the choices are endless but we elevate our trajectory when more of us feel the responsibility to contribute more deeply.

It’s incredibly naïve to believe we need to like everyone. I would like to believe we can actually narrow our judgement to “content of character” in the words of Martin Luther King.

And so what should the content of our collective and individual character be?

I think the only filter we really need to have, if we believe in the value of having values that knit us together as a society, is a simple one: EQUALITY. Equality is a matter of law, freedoms, opportunities, and way of life. It is blind to our differences. In a democratic and caring society, we sow the seeds of grinding lack of progress, conflict, and ultimately our demise as a society and a humanity if we take ownership of belief in some natural right of inequality.

This said, to really get to a place of equality demands more than nice words. We need to scratch our surfaces, shine a light on the uncomfortable, and address our illnesses rather than the symptoms. The pathway to change starts with more soulful recognition of the problem. It’s been said that the scariest monsters are the ones that lurk within our souls. We aren’t born with judgement systems that find bias. Just watch children play together. Judgement is conditioned by influences we absorb. Our conscious and sub-conscious superiority complexes can be demons of our truths….if we allow them to be.

We are being tested. We are bending in breezes of discontent and intolerance. We can’t despair in reading our Facebook feed, tune out the world, or hope problems just go away. It is time for US to rise…the middle ground of normal people just wanting to build a future and leave a positive legacy for children and grandchildren. Now is the time to find our compass, to re-invest in a path of enlightenment, and to pursue lives of amazing grace:

I once was lost, but now am found;

Was blind, but now I see.

…Through many dangers, toils and snares,

I have already come;

’Tis grace hath brought me safe thus far,

And grace will lead me home.