Isn't humanity a beautiful thing?

I'm taking a social psychology class this semester, and one of the topics we've been talking about recently is the concept of groups—what they are, how they work, and the purpose they serve. As humans, we are innately social creatures. We crave the feeling of belonging. It is this need to belong that gives birth to our inherent tendency to form groups, to see the world through an "us and them" lens. In social psychology, we also talk a lot about ingroups and outgroups, and how our brains are wired to understand the world in terms of these cognitive groupings. And it is in these groups where we are able to fulfill that universal need to belong.

Me and a few of my best friends :)

Tying this back to the concept of cosmopolitanism, I think it is so important that we not get too caught up in all the talk of breaking down barriers and uniting the human race, that we forget how essential it is to our well-being to have an ingroup to which we belong. We need our ability to define ourselves by the groups we belong to.

However, it is equally as important to not get too caught up in the talk of group identity, of ingroups and outgroups, and the need to belong, that we forget how central our common humanity is to our identity and nature. First and foremost, we are all human beings; we are all spirit children of a loving Heavenly Father, who came to earth to obtain a body and to experience life in all its hardship and beauty. This universal truth unites every person who has ever lived on the earth, giving us a strength and a unity that if acknowledged and appreciated, cannot be matched.

I loved the way Kwame Anthony Appiah explained that a crucial component of cosmopolitanism "is that we take seriously the value not just of human life but of particular human lives, which means taking an interest in the practices and beliefs that lend them significance" (Appiah, p. xv, 2006). It is humbling to me to think of the billions of lives and stories happening in real time on the earth today, to think of the joy, the pain, the laughter, the confusion, the heartache, the frustration, the curiosity, the resilience, and the hope that are rippling across the world. I want to be more appreciative of these emotions, the very feelings that unite me with my fellow men and women—both on a global scale and a more local scale. There is so much beauty and sacredness in the human experience, a beauty and a sacredness that we are all blessed to share.

-Em