Living in a world that has achieved a certain level of equality and acceptance between gender, race, and religion, I can’t stop myself from pondering about the long journey that lies ahead in the old world. To think that in the span of a hundred years, so many beliefs and preset prejudices were torn, broken, and burnt to allow the resurgence of peaceful coexistence, of honest acceptance and affirmation of the differences in each person is just mind boggling. It took one person at a time, one courageous act at a time, one speech at a time, to shake the grounds and to transform the vast topographic terrain of thoughts. It takes time and perseverance to redefine the truth, the beautiful, the right and the authorities in our societies. It takes you and me, one step, one word, one stand at a time from within our countries or beyond their limits, to change how our societies color their realities.
I was told that Americans are with no roots, narrow minded, simplistic, and ignorant. It took a leap of faith into the deep end of the pool to discover that my prejudices have no basis whatsoever. We would be very smart to let the New and Young world teach us about the value of human life, the richness of our own culture, the endless peace that emanates from our own spiritual heritage. The most important pillars of our culture that we have forgotten and are collecting dust in the dark rooms of our monasteries, fortresses, and beneath our lands, are being revealed, studied, meditated upon in the United States. As old as our world is, we have yet to learn a lot about how to struggle if we want to achieve, how to persevere if we want to see change, and most importantly how to commit ourselves to a cause and with it create a community of people that will have a common vision and one heart.