Unity Can Be Divisive And Peaceful At The Same Time

I remember when I took an Art Therapy course in Maria College a few years ago, we did a class project.  There was a large white piece of paper on an 8 foot table.  We were all given a marker/crayon/chalk  and asked to draw as inspired on this paper as we moved around all four sides of the table to music.  When the piece was finished, the teacher said we have a choice, we can tear pieces of this artwork and take it home as a memory of this shared creation or we can leave it whole. Everyone wanted to tear it into pieces but I wanted to leave it whole.  The thought of donating it to the college to put in a hallway for all of the students to enjoy, to me, was a way of sharing the creative love.

So the teacher did that. (We could not have it both ways to her way of thinking, but thinking outside the box, we could have had it both ways I discovered later.)

She found a hallway in the college and the piece went up.  Other students (not in the Art Therapy class) did not see what was special about it.  It looked like an abstract that had no meaning. Some even thought it pointless, useless.

Now some of the students who wanted to tear it and keep a piece were OK with not having that piece, but then they did not have a choice, since I wanted it whole.  I began to think how the others can have their wish too, so I took a color photograph of the piece and gave a copy to everyone in the class.  I had my photograph enlarged and framed it.  The other AT students were happy to receive their 3X5 copies.

Years have gone by and I have looked deeper within me.  I think back over that art piece and my wanting to keep it whole and the teacher keeping it whole.  For me to have it my way, other people did not get to have a piece, their way.  I like that I made a photograph for everyone, got in contact with each and gave it to them.

But...was MY way so important?  To have it MY way, "Whole," others did not get their wish.  The piece was taken down and moved elsewhere only to get lost, probably, eventually in the trash.

How much more would the pieces have meant to the individual AT students?

I see this in dividing properties in a will.  If someone wants to keep it whole, the individuals cannot have individual pieces of it but in the end, you can't take it with you.  So why not let others have a fair piece that makes her/him happy?

Unity can mean division.  Diversity of ideas, but unity of purpose, the purpose to respect differing ideas, and live peacefully side by side.

Now that I am older, I could have let everyone have a piece of that art work after I took the photograph because in the end, I have the "whole" in a frame. I would have rather let those have their piece instead of having it end its life in the trash.  I am not that short-sighted anymore.  I realize all I have is this moment and physical things are not worth dividing a family, nation, or an art class of students.

We can live together in peace with differing ideas, we just need to "agree to disagree." To live in unity, respecting each other for who we are knowing having each other, going peacefully through life together, is the greatest accomplishment of all.