Article June 15, 1992 Issue

Diversity and unity

Diversity is something we appreciate more and more as we see creation from a spiritual standpoint.

Annette Kreutziger-Herr

I Love Europe—its individual countries, its languages, traditions, lifestyles, its rich heritage and promising future. I appreciate diversity, and I find it every day in encounters with other cultures, whether I'm visiting the playground with our three-year-old or shopping in the supermarket or teaching at the university. We have friends who are Italian, French, Swiss, Austrian, Luxembourgian, Dutch, English—also Japanese and American. My family from my mother's side were originally French Huguenots who fled from France to Germany because of their Protestant faith. Part of my husband's family is of Dutch origin.

Diversity has never presented any threat to me but has greatly benefited my life. I like to see diversity as a hint of the richness of the divine creation. For me, such variety should not be dismissed as separating but instead can be appreciated as unifying, as indicating the indispensable role of each individual identity in God's universe. Not one can be dispensed with. We all are needed.

In his article "The goal of human existence," Albert Einstein refers to "the most important factor in giving shape to our human existence" as "the setting up and establishment of a goal; the goal being a community of free and happy human beings who by constant inward endeavor strive to liberate themselves from the inheritance of anti-social and destructive instincts" (from Out of My Later Years).

Send a comment to the editors

NEXT IN THIS ISSUE

Article

"It takes a new kind of reading of the Bible"