Pangaea – A Collision of Worlds

I’ve noticed whenever a person comes into a situation or conversation believing that their opinions are universally true, an unsafe environment is created for the other parties. For when one is ‘right’ that automatically makes the other party wrong. From there, one can’t go into a dialogue about it. A door to open conversation has been closed, for it has been turned into either preaching (telling someone how to act, speak, feel, or believe) or an argument where each person feels the need to either defend or project onto the other. Neither of these creates safety. Yet we see this behaviour all the time. What happens when worlds collide together?

It’s believed that the world was once a large chunk of land, often given the name Pangaea and over time, the tectonic plates shifted. When they collided, one got pushed upwards towards the sky. The other was pushed down. Mountains and valleys formed, as did oceans, resulting in the creation of barriers between our worlds. And for a long period of time, we didn’t even know about the land on the other side of the water.

I dream of a world where we don’t need to push another down to feel validated. I dream of a place where we can stand side by side, despite our differences. I dream of a world where we can come together, carrying our beliefs loosely and respectfully, a place where our worlds can collide in a messy, sometimes chaotic, but safe environment, a place where we no longer create rifts between us and them. This is not to say that we must all behave or believe the same; in fact, I mean to say the opposite.  I dream of a place where our viewpoints can be different but yet respected, even if they are not held by “the other.”  I dream of a place where we can feel safe to be ourselves while enabling others to do the same – a coming together of the whole.