The Interconnected Web

We Unitarian Universalists often mention interconnectedness in terms of our inextricable human bond with our natural environment or with humankind as a whole. In this writing, I refer to a much narrower scope, as I share a recent incident that moved me deeply.

My husband, John, and I visited my 90-year-old Uncle Robert in Moultrie, GA for several hours on a February Friday. Uncle Robert affords me insight to interconnectedness: It is circuitous. My father and I disagreed on nearly every point of politics and religion, but his brother, Robert, and I get along famously on nearly every issue. I was telling Uncle Robert about Peacemakers and how the main purpose of our group is to bring together people of all kinds and how we all work at learning to live together peacefully. He began to sob. Between gasps of breath, he asked me whether I knew about his brother Julius, and his efforts, beginning in 1948, to form a “World University.”
Uncle Julius is another example of round-about connectedness: I knew that he had spoken to a gathering at the United Nations about ways to bring together citizens from all parts of the world. Not long ago, I was leafing through one of the books Uncle Julius had published when he was a Baptist minister. His address to the UN is included as an appendix. I was stunned to read the similarities between his proposal and the goals we strive for in Peacemakers. He advocates a “voluntary world-wide citizenship;” the appendix is 23 pages and includes much more than I can cover here. His final sentence, however, reads, “Universally, we need to initiate and cultivate a WILL to Peace.”
Initiating and cultivating a WILL to peace is the crux of Peacemakers. I feel grateful and humble to be connected by family to two people who have (or had) that will. I am honored to be connected also to our Peacemakers family of 70 or more who carry forward that WILL. May it ever be so.