Greed.

Corruption.

Hate.

Lust.

Judgment.

Fear.

These are only a few

of the words

that haunt our Earth today.

We cannot ignore the problems

of our world any longer.

It is easy to sit back,

to trust that others

are working in the shadows,

but the darkest forces

threaten not just Earth's deepest corners—

they threaten

the very soil beneath our feet.

Open your eyes.

Wider.

As wide as the endless universe.

See clearly.

We cannot wait to care

only when evil strikes our own lives.

We cannot live on

“selective empathy.”

Close your eyes now.

Imagine a Palestinian girl,

her skin stretched so thin

her bones speak through,

starved by hunger.

Now,

imagine someone you love

in that same place.

Admit it—

the second vision

burns deeper.

And that makes sense.

It is how we are made.

Love makes us deaf to all else.

It drowns out the world.

It chooses for us.

But,

we cannot indefinitely

treat the suffering as strangers,

even when their names

are unknown to us.

For one day,

we too

may stand among them.

And aren’t we all human?

Don’t we all

do the very same thing

that ties our souls together-

simply feel?

In the end,

are we merely strangers—

or are we living chances

to learn,

to grow,

to sympathize in each other's pain?

We all carry a story.

And if we truly listen;

not half-heartedly,

not politely,

but wholly;

we can do more

than dream the world

back to life.

We can make that dream

a reality