Today is Good Friday and given the teachings I received from my religion teachers, it is a day to relax and reflect. No work is to be done in cultures like Puerto Rico where Catholicism still has some type of influence mixed with other religious beliefs. Although I was brought up around Catholic mentors which have helped me throughout my life, in many ways I try to be more spiritual than religious.
Reading @ricky_martin’s book Me helped me understand the difference in between being spiritual and religious. As humans we love to divide ourselves. In 1999 I read another book who made me change my views in many ways. I bought The The Art of Happiness: A Handbook for Living
which was written by the Dalai Lama and Howard C. Cutler. The book starts explaining how as humans we divide ourselves in many ways. For example we are from different backgrounds such as:
- Religions
- Work for different companies
- Business owners or employees
- Favorite Sports Team ( we might have a different one for every sport)
- Basketball
- Futbol
- Football
- Baseball
- Hockey
- Rugby
- Golf Player
- Political beliefs
- Countries
- Cities
- Neighborhoods
- Families
- Drive Different Cars
- Types of Music
I think you all get the point that these lists can be endless but there is one thing we all have in common like for example:
- Being Human
While at Hispanicize I had the opportunity to Listen to @edwardjamesolmos at his Keynote and his message was very profound. He started making an emphasis on the importance of speaking various languages and uniting ourselves by embracing as many languages as we could. His speech quickly brought to my mind the lessons I learned many years ago by reading The Art of Happiness.
http://twitter.com/#!/rj_c/status/56388774036385792
http://twitter.com/#!/rj_c/status/56388912746205184
Edward is a great activist fighting for rights of Latinos using the influence he has earned to protect human rights. The quote that had the most weight was when he stated “There is only one Race & it is the Human Race”
http://twitter.com/#!/rj_c/status/56391231319707648
As humans it is our nature to divide ourselves. It becomes powerful and apparent with tools such as the internet. We can see how people are divisive from location and geographical barriers. Edward was very vocal on how as Latino’s we call ourselves a race and we are not. I see how many supposedly try to unite groups by dividing and I really think they are missing out. People who are out to destruct because they have a fear in collaborating or being in disagreement with someone. The most common situation are people doing unethical things that can be borderline illegal just to catch an audience. Some firm believers that any PR is good PR.
http://twitter.com/#!/rj_c/status/56391263729106944
I was so amazed by Edward’s keynote especially when someone from his generation embraces technology as a tool for all humans to stay ahead of the game. It is great when you have someone taking care of his own without excluding other groups and has the mind set to make sure he is using the right tools and technology to do a better job at it.
I had the opportunity to talk to Edward for a quick minute and thanked him for his speech and for concentrating so much of a great message in less than an hour.
So today no matter what your religious belief is, work on building something even if your religion does not allow to physically work; build ideas on how you can unite those around.
Make sure you focus on building things with those that have common interests it will make it easier for you to complete any task at hand.
So like Mr. Edward James Olmos said don’t forget that “There is only one Race & it is the Human Race” ~@edwardjolmos
Make the best of this day and enjoy the time you have here on this earth with the people you have around you by making a difference.
Unite Unite Unite
Photo Credit by @papiblogger and Hispanicize.
Interview by our Friend @terezagarza from ChecaLAmovie.com
