Our common humanity

“How can we explain the psychological level of solidarity, cooperation and interdependence among people?”

Stephen F.

I wish to address the concept of “our common humanity” through the theme of freedom and a sense of connection that comes from abandoning our attachments. Let me explain it through the story of American astronaut Rusty Schweickart, during the flight of Apollo 9 to the moon in 1969. On the first part of the flight, the crew was kept so busy with tasks and fixing their equipments that no one was looking out of the windows. Only as they were orbiting the globe while awaiting their return to Earth, did Schweickart glance outside.

He states that he acquired a new point of view of the Middle East, Africa, and the Mediterranean, while imagining the civilizations that were born there, and then he saw India, the Southeast Asia, the Pacific Ocean, and the United States... From sunrise to sunset, the astronauts circumnavigated the globe. On that flight, Schweickart identified himself with every people, thinking about their unique history and the contributions that they made to mankind. After a little while something changed in him. He asked himself: “Do you realize that your identity can be found in the whole humanity? Look down at the globe and you cannot imagine how many borders and boundaries we are going through and we are building as different peoples. Hundreds of people die in war because of an imaginary line that we are not conscious of and which we do not bother to distinguish either. From here though, you see the planet as a whole and it is so wonderful that you want to take each person by the hand and say, “Look at Earth from this perspective. Look at what matters.”

Every time I go over this episode, it touches me because it speaks directly about our human condition—about the attachments and the fear, the greed and the pain we’ve caused each other—and how limited we are by imposing on others our emotional pain. As long as we remain trapped to our selfish desires, we will continuously repress our creativity and kindness. Abandoning our attachments both as individuals and as communities or nations, we can reduce our limitations and inflexibility, and inspire others to discover and intuit the experience of our common humanity.

Pasquale Ionata (For New City, Philippines)