Value of the week — Unity
“What I’m not confused about is the world needing much more love, no hate, no prejudice, no bigotry and more unity, peace and understanding. Period.” Stevie Wonder.
The children at Oatlands Infant School in Surrey thought about how to display their values in a beautiful sculpture. Their hands were modelled in clay to produce a moving sculpture, which shows the values that the children learn about and work to express in their lives. The photo shows the value of unity.
The children express unity as people holding hands, being together in harmony. Unity means oneness and comes from the Latin unitas.
This week I was listening to a psychologist friend, Joanna Kitto, giving a talk about ecopsychology, a new concept for me. Her talk was so impactful, as I learned how trees in a forest are all interconnected and communicate with one another through huge networks of fungi fibres — a bit like the worldwide web underground. The trees support each other if under threat. Older, so-called mother trees pass life-enhancing information and nutrients to younger trees around them. Science has shown the harmful effects of removing these trees; how important it is to have a diverse population of tree species, rather than the single species that logging companies prefer to harvest.
Joanna’s talk was about the unity of nature and the harm humans have done, and are doing, in thinking that we are not an integral part of the wider ecosystem. Scientists explain that unity, seeing the natural environment as a whole, is key to our survival. They explain that the great challenges that humanity face are all related and interdependent. The solutions require a shift in human consciousness, an awareness of the unity of creation. The children at Oatlands School are taking the first steps in understanding unity through their values-based education.
