Letters - 23 November 2018
From spirituality to support and goodwill
Spirituality
Stephen Feltham’s article on ‘Humility’ and the role of the ego in war (26 October) touches on a yet deeper issue: our disconnection from each other, from life on this the planet and ultimately from God. This is one way of understanding the biblical fall – the loss of connection with the oneness of creation.
The good news is that we are not stuck in an endless cycle of destruction and self-destruction, war without end. Joyce Gee’s poem in the same edition puts it beautifully: ‘That I am a small evolving part/Of the Creative whole.’
Although terrible carnage in places such as Syria and Yemen persist, this planet is more peaceful and prosperous than it has even been. New generations increasingly embrace a sense of connection to the environment, to each other, to all the peoples of this world and even beyond. Spirituality – ‘spirit-in-reality’ – is in evidence everywhere.
Humanity is awakening.
Simenon Honoré
Equality
We should be wary of confusing equality with sameness or uniformity (24 August and 14 September). To speak of the equality of human beings is not to suggest they are the same in any empirical sense, but to say that they are of equal worth, whether before God or humankind. This also means that equality and diversity are completely compatible.
Just for fun, let’s revisit the parable of the triangles. Whilst isosceles and right-angle triangles are not the same they are equal in their triangularity – that the sum of their angles is always 180 degrees.
Peter Knight
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