Out of Many, One

E Pluribus Unum, (out of many, one) are the words emblazoned on the Great Seal of the United States. It’s a hope, a dream for our country. In an interesting synchronicity, that aspiration parallels the words on the logo for my faith community, the United Church of Christ. It’s a phrase taken from the Gospel of John: “That they may all be one.”  In a climate which presently smothers hope for families, drowns the dreams of communities, especially communities of color, and ravages cities and states, is it possible to make those words a reality?

During my time sheltering at home over the last three months, I have spent hours doing jigsaw puzzles. Following long-ago instructions from my father, I don’t look at the picture on the box. Naturally this takes a bit longer as I lose myself in the process, curious as to what will emerge.

In the quiet hours when I am gazing at the table, figuring out which piece will go where, my mind often wanders off. During one of those musings, I began to envision puzzle as metaphor.

Individual pieces resemble familiar figures: a woman with a flower a bear, a boat, a starfish. Many more are simply random shapes until, lo and behold, joined with one or two more, they become a bison or a bicycle!

Isn’t our world like that? We’re a world of individuals, each with her own shape, of many colors and sizes. The three pieces shown here tell a mini story: a celebrity being filmed by two paparazzi. Two men and a woman who stand on their own and will also become part of the greater whole.  They will link up with other pieces so that the puzzle can be finished.  People who live in close-knit families, or become part of a community with like-minded folk, are the two or more puzzle pieces which form a familiar shape only when joined together.  Humanity, with all its various clusters and constellations of people, is as diverse as each piece of the larger puzzle. The connections that we form with others give shape and meaning to our lives.

Yet no individual nor any group by itself can, by definition, achieve the dream of a country that is “out of many, one”.  We won’t solve the puzzle of a nation in crisis until we can come together with all our diversities of background, race and gender identity; all levels of social and economic class and political opinion.  Group actions, crowd rallies and protests, especially now, must be catalysts for concerted, inclusive and widespread change. Scientists with politicians, artists with universities, engineers with community organizers, law enforcement with social justice institutions and many, many more local and national entities can start to lead this nation closer to the real American dream: that out of many, we will be one.

“That they may all be one”. The Gospel of John attributes those words to Jesus as he prayed during the final moments before he was arrested, stripped and beaten by Roman soldiers. They remind me of the plea from Rodney King, who was also arrested and beaten, in 1991 by Los Angeles police officers: “Can’t we all just get along?”

Three decades, two thousand years: it’s way past time to get along.  If not now, then when will the huge puzzle be put together of our presently un-United States ?  When will the words of the Great Seal become a reality? When will our prayer be answered? When will we all be one?