I have been procrastinating. It’s raining outside and I’m a little tired. I thought maybe I would just post something about the animals I’ve shared my life with over the years. And then I thought maybe something from my childhood. I love my memories and I’m so pleased I still have them. But that’s not what I want to talk about. Today is a sad day in the world.

I do not understand hatred between people. I hate beats. (Apologies to those who love them.) I hate bigotry and racism. I hate intolerance and condescension. Why are they so prevalent everywhere you look? We have people inciting hatred for no apparent reason. Perhaps they are a little different than you or I. Maybe it’s because they live in a different country. These are not good reasons!

We all have so much in common. Every single person on this planet bleeds the same colour. We all laugh and cry and feel pain. We may speak different languages, look different and even have different customs but we all have the capacity to love and to hate. Why would we fan the embers of the negative over the positive?

We are all brothers and sisters, mothers and fathers, parents and children. We are one race: the human race. We need to stop hating and start caring for each other, for those who are less fortunate and for those who are different. ‘Different’ doesn’t mean bad any more than ‘food’ means pizza. There are all different kinds of people in the world and working together is how we will become the best version of ourselves.

I want to live in a world where people like each other. I’m not asking for love. That comes from a deeper place. I’ll settle for ‘like’. People are killing other people for reasons that don’t make sense. Perhaps that is the point. Our world doesn’t make sense! Some days I wanted it to stop, just stop. And yet that would be defeatism. We have to work at it. I have to work at. We all have to find the courage to stand up and fight for the truth and for each other. We are not alone in this world. And whether or not we want to admit it, we need each other.