The Civil War is one of many examples of the difficulty of maintaining unity in a nation, especially as large as the U.S. Division is always fertile ground for strife, whether in the color of the skin or the ideologies men live by. There has to be an undergirding ideological foundation that unifies any culture in order for it to survive and flourish. There is much emphasis currently in our nation on the concept of multi-culturalism. We have evolved from the "melting pot" to the "salad bowl". There seems to be a light and shadow side to the concept. Our physical bodies present a good example. The body is unified. Every single cell in the body works to keep the it alive; to nourish and protect it. The body has a boundary [the skin] as does every cell [the cell wall and membranes]. These boundaries allow certain matter to enter and they repel other forms of matter--that which is detrimental to the unity and function of the body. We know that it is destructive to the body to allow any substance/matter to enter randomly. There is a form of biological wisdom evident in the "choices" being made at the cellular level in terms of what passes through boundaries. The repelling of certain matter by the boundaries of any organism does not constitute intolerance, at least not in an unhealthy sense. Contrarily, it is for the good of the organism that it repels that which works against the life-maintaining functions of the systems and subsystems of that organism. Likewise, it is the duty of any culture to discover and adhere to all that is good for the human family, and to prevent any viral, Trojan Horse invasions of its boundaries; or to eliminate them before they destroy the life-enhancing functions of that culture. This process must be characterized by humility and compassion: never hatred or fear. A boundary can be too rigid or it can be too porous to serve the organism well.
Mark Graham
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