My mind is al ways
making connections between the small world, the microcosm, and the bigger world around us, the macrocosm. Everywhere I see fragmenting and warring with others whom we perceive as not like us, whether in religion, race, class, nationality, gender, orientation, whatever. I see many people reflecting a similar war within themselves.
They have not done the hard work of integration.
If we are to have peace within and peace without, we must moderate our warring drives and ideologies and seek a path of moderation. We must listen more carefully and learn follow the middle way.
The classical scholar Kitto, I believe, said the Greek philosophers did not arrive at the notion of the golden mean, or middle way, because they saw so much of it. Rather, they valued it because
they saw so many extremes around them.
So today. Would that we could stop shouting “You’re a Republican! Or “You’re a Democrat! You have nothing valuable to contribute.”  We further fragment our society, and ourselves, when we encourage such factions.