I am so much more interested in human connection than human division. 

But where does that connection come from? How does it happen? 

I spoke with a former English teacher from my high school at an alumni event last week, and he mentioned how death connects us to one another. The Greeks saw all humans—even those who fought against one another—as connected in their mortality. Shakespeare wrote about how all the dead will take up the same space in the ground.

I agreed with him—we are connected to one another in our limits, our suffering, and our mortality. 

Human Connection: Capacity to Love

But we are also connected to one another in our capacity to love. 

I don’t want to wait for death to embrace our common humanity. And I don’t want to wait for love either. I want to pursue it. 

Pursuing our common humanity means pursuing love that crosses social boundaries, one small step at a time. 

Love Connects Us

On the podcast this week, Todd Billings talks about choosing to introduce his children to elderly members of their congregation who live in nursing homes and forge connections across the generations. In White Picket Fences, I write about the gift of human connection that can transcend social location when meeting a young immigrant woman from Morocco who misses her sister with Down syndrome. 

Love connects us here and now. 

In this time of great division and unrest, we all have an opportunity to take small steps towards human connection and love. 

To learn more with Amy Julia:

• Love is Stronger Than Fear | Season 3—White Picket Fences
• Love for a Thousand Generations
• Embracing Our Common Humanity

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