Monday, August 07, 2006


Spot the difference?

What if I asked you to describe the objects in the following picture?

Immediately, almost like a spinal reflex, you would say, "There is a square that is different from the others." That is the thing with us human beings - differences are more obvious to us than similarities. So upon a first glance, we tend to neglect things like:
  1. They all have the same shape
  2. They all qualify as regular polygons, parallelograms, rhombuses and squares
  3. They all have the same length
  4. They all have the same breadth
  5. They all have the same perimeter
  6. They all have the same area
  7. They all are spaced equally from each other
Look upon any other human being, no matter friend, stranger or foe, and see that like you, he/she has:
  1. 2 eyes to see
  2. 2 ears to listen
  3. A nose to breathe and smell
  4. A mouth to eat, taste and speak
  5. 2 hands to feel, touch and work
  6. 2 opposable thumbs, which no other animal on the planet has
  7. 2 legs to carry him/her
  8. A mind to think, to analyse, to judge
  9. A heart to pump blood
  10. Blood that is red
  11. Blood that is warm
  12. Chromosomes that number 23 pairs
  13. The capacity to feel emotions like pain, anger, sadness, joy, gratitute, love
  14. Parents that gave birth to him/her
  15. Siblings and friends that love him/her
  16. A life that he/she leads
  17. Hopes
  18. Dreams
  19. Fears
  20. And the list goes on....
Yet despite all these similarities, we are willing to fight, to kill, to destroy each other for the little differences between us. The unwillingness to accept the differences that must exist, the refusal to acknowledge each other as fellow human beings have locked us in a seemingly endless cycle of conflict.

怨怨相报何时了? When will you free yourselves from your own hatred?

posted by nwxiang at 12:00 AM |


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