Most days, I walk around thinking everyone sees the world just as I do. Are you like that or is it just me? I convince myself that it would all be so ‘much easier’ if they did. There would be no arguments, peace would reign. Everyone would agree about what to have for dinner, what movie to see, what church to go to, who to vote for for president. Of course, this is delusional thinking on my part. My world view is shaped by DNA, life experience, education, my social circles, my faith community, my place of privilege in the world. At the deepest level, I know this. Sometimes my ego allows me to long for everyone wearing the same pair of corrective lenses as I do.

"Think of society as being like a pond, an ecosystem. You need this anaerobic bacteria, that algae. Hold the phosphorous. We all see the world so clearly and crisply through our own glasses that it’s a difficult imaginative leap to believe another person sees a different scene, logically incompatible with yours." writes Mary Rose O’Reilley

Here I am-here you are-in the pond with all these others who have an equal right to their views, their beliefs, their faith,their ways of seeing. And life finds us swimming together and trying to make sense of it all. This is so clear to me as I listen to all the ads running us toward Super Tuesday. Some voices sound so like my own. Others are so different I can’t recognize what they are talking about, who they are speaking to or for in this great land of ours.

And yet here we are, all together in one place,one ecosystem,trying to create a world that is better for ourselves and for all the children and children’s children that will follow us. Ecosystem….eco, coming from the Greek oikos, meaning house. It’s messy business….and beautiful….as most ponds, as most houses, are.

As we go forward in the next days of decision making and moving further to the right or to the left, may we remember that we are caring for the ‘whole house’, not just our particular room. May we try as best we can to see through our own lenses clearly while squinting to see the view of others. And through it all may we act wisely, with kindness, and an effort to do no harm to those swimming with us.

"And if a house is divided against itself, that house will not be able to stand. Mark 3:25