What if I could take the trip of a lifetime…

… through the body, mind, heart, and circumstances of every other creature on the planet?

What if I could feel what it’s like to be young and old, rich and poor, ugly and beautiful, male and female, healthy and infirm, gifted and disabled, skilled and clumsy, short and tall, fat and skinny, brilliant and dull, black and white, educated and ignorant, popular and marginalized, charming and awkward, privileged and destitute, worshipped and bullied, welcome and shunned, lionized and demonized, sheltered and terrorized, embraced and abandoned… and everything in between and beyond?

Would I discover a universal thread that connects all things? A common ground that could put all our divisive illusions, fears, anxieties, and superstitions to rest?

Or just a mindless, heartless, hopeless lottery of masters and slaves, predators and prey?

Which of my working theories–about myself, human nature, and how the world turns–would survive this epic journey?

Would I find a reason for hope and engagement? Or for cynicism and resignation?

Would I be more inclined to love my neighbor or fear my neighbor?

More inclined to be my brother’s and sister’s keeper? Or just make it all about ME until death takes it all away?

So, whose shoes would I like to walk in today?

Whose shoes do I NEED to walk in today?

I may not be able to walk IN their shoes, but I can at least walk WITH them for a while and try to understand what it’s like to be somebody else.

And who knows? They may even show an interest in understanding what it’s like to be me.

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more like this… Existential Humanism