Everyone Laughs the Same Laughter

We need to return to what binds us together to make peace, to our roots as human beings, and to what matters to us. I follow with great sympathy and dismay what is happening in our world. I see images of destruction, violence, and hatred, and I recognize the streets, squares, and buildings that are so familiar to us. It makes me infinitely sad to see what is happening right now.

We witnessed the murder of George Floyd not long after the murder of Ahmaud Arbery.

Beyoncé, Billie Eilish, and numerous other stars condemn racism and police brutality in the United States after the death of George Floyd on social media.

We witness daily how a president drunk on power benevolently instigates conflict with so many nations, perhaps the nuclear holocaust someday.

At heart, I am with all the people who are in danger at present and also with those who exercise violence, on all sides, including those who use violence in political positions against other cultures. They probably need the most love and compassion.

Apart from the fact that I think it’s a remarkable provocation, consciously accepting the heavy violence, perhaps even bringing it along to your doorsteps, so very different thoughts are piling up on me these days.

Those who fight others have much more in common with self-hate than they will ever know

I admit that as long as we focus on the outer appearances, this may sound like mockery to some. But it’s on a different level.

Often I read or hear the term “radical” in context,

“Radical protestors, radical decisions, radical reactions”

We have to remember again to be radically human.

The Latin origin of this word, “radix”, means “root”, in the figurative sense “origin”; Late-Latin education “radicalis” means “innate, accumulated, naturally”

With this word sense in mind, we can understand that we are in-depth in our desires, fears, and yearnings, in our needs, dreams, and hopes.

We all want to feel happy, safe, and comfortable; we all fear pain, suffering, and death.

I once visited an exhibition of the World Press Photos of the Year

When I stood in front of the pictures, one thing became clear to me,

Everyone laughs the same laughter

The peasant from Somalia just like the GI in Afghanistan, the beggar from Irak just like the Wall Street banker.

Precisely at the point, there is a spark for a different living together than we see it so often at this time.

What we urgently need is peace. Peace is right or wrong, good or bad, black or white — a peace based on basic humanity.

I am not a dreamer and do not beg illusions. I will continue in this world in the future, giving violence, destruction, and wars. And yet I can oppose that. It always starts with ourselves.

Because this peace will not come from above and not accidentally, it will have its beginning in each of us and then expand from there.

It is a peace based on self-awareness and self-responsibility, the acceptance of one’s own mistakes, limitations, and inadequacies and thus understanding the mistakes, limitations, and inadequacies of others.

And on the awareness of one’s potentials, which, if we unfold and bring into being, they can also be recognized by others and hence strengthen one another.

The war we see on the outside is always a reflection of the war we still carry within ourselves

About a year ago, I heard an interesting comment on a rally that was soon to take place. It was said that it would be great to attend and show support for the rally.

But how much more would the world be helped if all people who are on rallies pick up the phone at home in the evening and call those people with whom they are fighting or are in conflict, and ask for forgiveness and peace?

As a rule, we can’t directly prevent people from being taken by force of arms, rainforests being destroyed, or rudeness.

However, when we come to relate peace to ourselves and people, when we come to deal with it clearly and lovingly, we make a big difference, which is also noticeable on the outer level.

The faster and more impressive, the more people let this art of peace develop. We need a peace based on forgiveness, especially towards oneself.

A peace that understands the value of the other, but can also be without fear, presumption, or self-righteousness.

We need a peace that closes, integrates and unites, knowing that all the outer sub-layers are artificial, deceptive in nature.

A peace that has tolerance and respect as its core values, the clarity, the self-defense, and the courage to own the truth, and that there’s a good connection beyond frontiers.

And no, that does not mean egalitarianism. There are strengths in our individuality, in our different areas of otherness. It is no longer against each other, but only with each other.

It was never different. Let’s learn to see each other, to recognize each other, and to embrace each other.

Start with you, embrace yourself, and then the one standing next to you. Let us see what is possible through this gesture.

Love is easy — Hate is wrong

This article reflects on what weighs heavy on my heart, it seems the world is getting a little worse each day.

With that, I wish everyone to be well and safe at all times.