Outrage is everywhere.

Self described patriots rage over athletes’ chosen method of self-expression.  Billionaires believe a 15% tax burden is oppressive.  Coffee drinkers incensed by the threatening Starbucks holiday cup.

We may live in the first period of human history where every demographic simultaneously feels that they are being violated and victimized.

The media knows this.  It’s an industry built on content intended to spark vitriol, jealousy and fear based on our perceived differences.  Marketers know this.  Most of their messages pick at the scab of our innate fear of being different, or incentivize purchases promising to differentiate you from others.

Give Facebook or any cable ‘news’ channel 30 seconds of your attention and you’ll leave convinced that the gulf among every sector of society is wider than ever.

Even at a physiological level, we can’t escape our differences.  In fact, no matter how closely related, no two people are entirely the same.  Biology and neuroscience confirm that each of us have unique DNA, fingerprints, thoughts and feelings.

What if I told you that this is all bullshit.

What if the unassailable fact that each of us are 100% unique, is the common thread binding us together?

Ego is our sense of individuality that convinces us that we are separate beings when in fact we are all deeply connected.  Over the course of our lives, our circumstances, psychology and experiences weave a story that our brains constantly reinforce.  These data points are what we visualize and feel when we identify with a particular group, point of view or emotional wavelength.

One day a group of blind men and women heard that a strange new animal, an elephant, had been brought to the town.  Out of curiosity, they said: “We must inspect and know it by touch, of which we are all quite capable”.  Together, they sought it out.

The first person, whose hand landed on the trunk, said “This being is like a thick snake”.  To another, whose hand groped its ear, it seemed like a kind of fan.  Another person, whose hand was upon its leg, said, “The elephant is a pillar like a thick tree-trunk.  The blind woman who placed her hand upon its side said, “An elephant is quite immovable, much like a wall”.  He who felt its tail, described it as a ticklish rope. The last felt its tusk, stating the elephant is hard, smooth and like a spear.

Of course, they’re all right.  And they’re all wrong.

We often cling to and strongly defend what we believe to be absolute truths.  Even if we are not physically blind, each of us is incapable of seeing the totality of truth, since we are limited by our own circumstances.

Nobody has or ever will see, understand or experience life the same way as you.

Buddhists often refer to this concept as ‘seeing things the way they are’.  To see things as they are is to unearth our hidden assumptions about ourselves and our world, and to notice how, on close inspection, these assumptions often contradict our actual experience.

Your lens is uniquely yours and colored by an infinite list of variables only you are privy to.  While you may feel beholden to your thoughtful, well intentioned and informed point of view, remember that none of us, regardless of perspective, are ever able to see the whole elephant.