It’s in the SAUCE is all about understanding, valuing, and managing differences.  It is about the philosophy of The Platinum Rule, which is related to, but not the same as, The Golden Rule.  Whereas the Golden Rule espouses treating others like you want to be treated, the Platinum Rule is about treating others as they wish to be treated, which can be different than we want to be treated.  Both the Golden Rule and the Platinum Rule encourage us to manage our differences with others in a spirit of openness, respect, and compassion.  This mindset is extremely important in a world of greater and greater diversity.

We have experienced a time of extreme violence in our country in the past few days.  One of these events was the largest mass murder in our nation’s history, the murder of 49 innocent people at the Pulse nightclub in Orlando. Just a few days before that a very talented young singer who was a finalist in a recent Voice competition was murdered, also in Orlando. Both of these events are so very tragic.  We should all be grieving, and trying to figure out how to live better with others, even in spite of our differences.  That is not easy when there is so much hatred by some people for those who are different, whether those differences be religious, social, ethnic, or due to the many other differences that can so easily divide us.

At times like this it is easy to turn our heads and think that this isn’t about us.  But it is about us, all of us.  We are a nation built on diversity, made strong by the talents and labors of many people, people of different ethnic groups.  This fact was so profound to me this week as I visited the Statue of Liberty.  I couldn’t help but think of all of the divisive rhetoric being thrown around recently about immigrants.  It was striking to me to hear the tour operator state that twenty-five percent of Americans have at least one grandparent who came to this country through Ellis Island.  So, many of us are offspring of immigrants.  I wonder if that fact should make us have more compassion for those who desperately want to immigrate to this country? To me this isn’t about illegal immigrants; that is a different issue.  And I realize that these facts alone do not discount in any way the difficulty in making decisions about the potential violence of people tied to certain groups who are responsible for 9/11 and the other terrorist events in this country and other countries.  There are no easy answers to these issues, regardless of how much political posturing is done.

How are we to make sense of these senseless killings?  What can we do to come together as a country with solutions, instead of all of the finger pointing?  Aren’t we better than that?

While in New York this week I also visited the World Trade Center Memorial, and was so touched by the the words of Virgil, “No Day Shall Erase You From The Memory of Time,” words honoring those who died in the 9/11 events.

And then there was the memorial to John Lennon in Central Park, with the words, “Imagine all the people living life in peace.”  Imagine.