🪞 We have met the enemy and they are us

The Book of TREE 1.29

You know those people your tribe isn’t supposed to like?

‘They are not like us.’ This is what you are told. As if they don’t have hope or feel fear. As if They are incapable of falling in love. As if they are orcs or dementors or lizards – anything but human.

But they are human. You and one of Them could get together and make an actual baby. On this planet, that only works with things that are like each other.

You can understand Them. You can know how They feel. You can move from antipathy to empathy.

One of the things I love about TREE is that the people who read it are all over the map – geographically, politically, socially, spiritually, economically – yet we all share a desire to become better humans.

There’s always something you have in common with one of Them. There’s always a way to connect. There’s always a path to empathy.

In case you were wondering, this is the source of the title of today’s post:

A note: People with severe antisocial personality disorders exist and do process the world in some very different ways. But psychopaths, sociopaths and narcissists are tiny minorities of both the Them and Us populations. When you base your understanding of the majority on edge cases, you weaken your connection to reality. What I’m saying is They are not a bunch of psychopaths.

Grow slowly
Jeff